CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Increasing Relevance of Traditional Medicine Systems for the Primary Health Care Sector and General Practice: Global Research Perspectives – Volume IIView all 33 articles
Integration of Ayurveda implements in managing chemotherapy induced Hand-foot-skin reaction-An exploratory quasi experimental study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amrita School of Ayurveda, Kollam, India
- 2Amrita School of Medicine, Kochi, India
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ABSTRACT Introduction: Hand-Foot-Skin-Reaction (HFSR) is one of the major mucocutaneous adverse events of multi-kinase-inhibitors (MKI). Its overall incidence is 35.0%. It negatively impacts the quality of life of the patient and compliance to chemotherapy. Present management of HFSR is largely anecdotal and the common treatment is dose regulation or discontinuation of chemotherapy. In Ayurveda, the clinical presentation of HFSR may be understood as pitta rakta-pradhana agantuja vraṇa in hasta and pada caused by MKI. The present study aimed to evaluate the Ayurveda treatment protocol as add-on to the standard of care. Methodology: This is a double arm-controlled interventional study with quasi experimental design, registered in the Clinical Trial Registry of India under CTRI/2022/03/040929 with twenty-two participants from Medical Oncology Department and Integrative Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. The study group received an add-on treatment to the standard of care (SOC). This included Yasṭimadhu Kashaya pariseka (from Day 1 to 30), followed by Shatadhauta Ghrita Lepana (from Day 6 to 30) twice daily immediately after pariseka. A gap of 1 hour was maintained between the Ayurveda treatment and SOC as prescribed by the oncologist. Results and Conclusion: The study group demonstrated a significant reduction in pain (VAS) and improvement in quality of life (HF-QoL) compared to the control group. Yasṭimadhu is vrana sandhaneeya, varnya, daha prashamana, sothahara and shonitasthapana. Ghrita is Vata Pittahara, sheeta veerya, and daahaprasamana, and facilitates ropana. HF-QoL improved due to effective management of symptoms. The pilot study suggested that an integrated therapy is feasible in HFSR patients, which can possibly support in improving the quality of life for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Keywords: Ayurveda, Pariseka, yastimadhu kashaya, lepana, satadhauta ghrita, Hand-foot skin reaction
Received: 12 Jul 2025; Accepted: 07 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sharma, Somaletha, K, Pavithran and Soman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Devipriya Soman, priya3656@gmail.com
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