Journal of Clinical Hepatology
Targeted medicines can slow the progression of advanced liver cancer, but some cause protein to leak into the urine. Severe proteinuria may require treatment interruption or permanent discontinuation.
Researchers retrospectively studied 137 patients with primary liver cancer who developed proteinuria during molecular targeted therapy. Thirty-four received Zishen Huoxue Formula for a cumulative period of at least nine weeks, while 103 did not receive the herbal treatment. After six months, the herbal-treatment group showed a greater improvement in proteinuria grade. To make the groups more comparable, the researchers matched 25 treated patients with 25 controls based on age, sex, baseline urinary protein and kidney-related laboratory measurements.
In this matched analysis, patients receiving the formula had better proteinuria grades and lower 24-hour urinary protein levels than controls after six months. The reduction from baseline was also greater in the treatment group.
After adjustment for other factors, treatment with Zishen Huoxue Formula was associated with approximately 2.9 times the odds of proteinuria improvement. No statistically significant deterioration in measured liver or kidney function was observed during treatment. Because treatment was not randomly assigned, the results show an association and do not prove that the formula produced the improvement.
Proteinuria can limit the use of effective targeted cancer medicines. A supportive treatment that reduces urinary protein without worsening liver or kidney function could help some patients continue anticancer therapy.
This study provides preliminary clinical evidence for Zishen Huoxue Formula as a possible supportive intervention. Its use of matching helps reduce some baseline differences between treated and untreated patients.
However, this was a single-centre retrospective study, and the matched analysis contained only 50 patients. Unmeasured differences in clinical care, cancer severity or treatment selection may have influenced the findings. Safety assessment was also based on available clinical records. A prospective randomised controlled trial is needed before effectiveness and safety can be established.
Objective: To investigate the effect of Zishen Huoxue Formula (ZSXHF) on molecular-targeted therapy-associated proteinuria in patient…
