REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Meta-analysis of the Efficacy and Safety of Kanglaite Injection in Conjunction with Chemotherapy for Cancer Pain
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
- 2Department of Medical Ultrasonics，Shenzhen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen 518172, China, shenzhen, China
- 3Department of Clinical Laboratory，Shenzhen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen 518172, China, 3.Department of Clinical Laboratory，Shenzhen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen 518172, China, shenzhen, China
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Objective To systematically assess the clinical efficacy and safety of Kanglaite Injection in combination with chemotherapy for cancer pain. Using PICO framework: Population (adult cancer patients with pain), Intervention (Kanglaite Injection + chemotherapy), Comparator (chemotherapy alone), Outcomes (pain scores, relief rates, KPS, adverse events). Methods The CNKI, WanFang, VIP, Chinese Biomedical Database, PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched. Randomized controlled trials specifically investigating the combined use of Kanglaite Injection and chemotherapy for cancer pain were included from the inception of the database until October 14, 2025. Literature screening and quality assessment were independently conducted by two researchers, with cross-verification. The extracted data were meta-analyzed using Rev Man 5.3 software. Results A total of 18 randomized controlled trials involving 1197 patients were included. The combined analysis demonstrated that Kanglaite Injection in conjunction with chemotherapy showed significant advantages over chemotherapy alone in terms of pain intensity score [SMD=-1.24, 95% CI (-1.68, -0.80), P<0.001], pain relief rate [RR=1.72, 95% CI (1.52, 1.95), P<0.001], and enhancement in the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score improvement rate [RR=1.64, 95% CI (1.39, 1.93), P<0.001]. Furthermore, Kanglaite Injection combined with chemotherapy exhibited advantages in reducing post-chemotherapy gastrointestinal reactions [RR=0.68, 95% CI (0.57, 0.81), P<0.001], white blood cell reduction [RR=0.73, 95% CI (0.57, 0.93), P<0.001], and liver function damage [RR=0.45, 95% CI (0.27, 0.75), P<0.001]. Evidence certainty was moderate for most outcomes per GRADE assessment. Conclusion The combination of Kanglaite Injection with chemotherapy appears effective and safe in treating cancer pain based on moderate-certainty evidence, pending further high-quality trials.
Keywords: Kanglaite, Coix seed oil, chemotherapy, Drug therapies, randomized controlled trial, cancer pain
Received: 19 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Yi, Chen, Liu, Li, Zhong, Peng, Liu and Xu. 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: Gaofei Feng
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