Effects of Panax Ginseng on Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial Ginseng for HRQOL in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Being diagnosed with cancer and chemotherapy impose distressing symptoms on patients’ Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL). This study evaluated ginseng efficacy on improving multiple aspects of HRQOL in breast cancer patients. Forty women with non-metastatic early breast cancer were enrolled in the study. Participants received ginseng (1 g/day) or placebo with standard chemotherapy. HRQOL was evaluated via in-person interviews at baseline, two weeks after the second and last chemotherapy cycles. The FACT-B, a 37-item questionnaire composed of five subscales including physical well-being (PWB), social well-being (SWB), emotional well-being (EWB), functional well-being (FWB), and Breast Cancer Subscale (BCS) was employed to assess HRQOL. A considerable decreasing trend in the mean scores of all subscales, as well as the total score, was observed in the placebo group; nevertheless, the ginseng group experienced a slight decrease in the PWB subscale and a constant or even increasing trend in other subscales and total score. The differences in the mean change of scores during the study period were statistically significant in all domains between the two groups (all p-values < 0.001). Regular ginseng supplementation may provide beneficial effects on enhancing different aspects of HRQOL including PWB, SWB, EWB, FWB, and BCS in breast cancer patients.

This study was registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT, IRCT20141227020441N7) in Jan 2020.

Acknowledgments

The authors would also like to acknowledge Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

Authors’ Contributions Statement

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Malihe Hamidian, Elham Heme, and Farzaneh Foroughinia were responsible for the study design. Malihe Hamidian and Shirin Haghighat were responsible for data acquisition. Malihe Hamidian and Mahboubeh Yousefi were responsible for data analysis. Malihe Hamidian and Mahboubeh Yousefi drafted the first manuscript. Farzaneh Foroughinia, Elham Heme and Shirin Haghighat conducted a critical revision of manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.