Background: Cancer has become a leading cause of death world-wide. In Hong Kong, cancer accounted for 24.8% of deaths in 1980, rising to 31.3% in 1998. The conventional treatment of cancer usually includes surgery, ra...Background: Cancer has become a leading cause of death world-wide. In Hong Kong, cancer accounted for 24.8% of deaths in 1980, rising to 31.3% in 1998. The conventional treatment of cancer usually includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. These conventional therapies do not guarantee not relapse and are often associated with serious side effects. Using Chinese Medicine (CM) as an adjunctive treatment is commonly practiced in Chinese Communities to support patients being treated with conventional modern medicine, with the aim of alleviating the side effects, and improving self-defense and their quality of life. Well-designed and conducted clinical trials could give evidence of the efficacy of CM. This study investigated the clinical efficacy through the well designed clinical trial, and the implementation of carrying out the trial, to assess the adjuvant and supportive effect on lung cancer patients. Methods: The clinical study was designed as a randomized controlled trial to investigate the dose-dependent effects. Primary endpoint was the difference of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) score. Results: 41 eligible subjects were enrolled and randomly divided into 2 groups, 21 in high dose group and 20 in low dose group. Sub-domains of PWB (Physical well-being) and EWB (Emotional well-being) as well as FACT-G total score were significantly improved in high dose group when compared with low dose group after 12 weeks treatment (p = 0.015, 0.006 and 0.012, respectively). Conclusions: Holistic approach using quality of life as parameters to evaluate the efficacy of CM is an important compromise. Well-designed clinical trial can provide convincing evidence to support CM’s efficacy. The study demonstrated that quality of life of patients with lung cancer could be beneficial from the supportive care with CM.展开更多
Heavy metal(loid)s(HMs)have caused serious environmental pollution and health risks.Although the past few years have witnessed the achievements of studies on environmental behavior of HMs,the related toxicity mechanis...Heavy metal(loid)s(HMs)have caused serious environmental pollution and health risks.Although the past few years have witnessed the achievements of studies on environmental behavior of HMs,the related toxicity mechanisms,and pollution control,their relationship remains a mystery.Researchers generally focused on one topic independently without comprehensive considerations due to the knowledge gap between environmental science and human health.Indeed,the full life cycle control of HMs is crucial and should be reconsidered with the combination of the occurrence,transport,and fate of HMs in the environment.Therefore,we started by reviewing the environmental behaviors of HMs which are affected by a variety of natural factors as well as their physicochemical properties.Furthermore,the related toxicity mechanisms were discussed according to exposure route,toxicity mechanism,and adverse consequences.In addition,the current state-of-the-art of available technologies for pollution control of HMs wastewater and solid wastes were summarized.Finally,based on the research trend,we proposed that advanced in-operando characterizations will help us better understand the fundamental reaction mechanisms,and big data analysis approaches will aid in establishing the prediction model for risk management.展开更多
文摘Background: Cancer has become a leading cause of death world-wide. In Hong Kong, cancer accounted for 24.8% of deaths in 1980, rising to 31.3% in 1998. The conventional treatment of cancer usually includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. These conventional therapies do not guarantee not relapse and are often associated with serious side effects. Using Chinese Medicine (CM) as an adjunctive treatment is commonly practiced in Chinese Communities to support patients being treated with conventional modern medicine, with the aim of alleviating the side effects, and improving self-defense and their quality of life. Well-designed and conducted clinical trials could give evidence of the efficacy of CM. This study investigated the clinical efficacy through the well designed clinical trial, and the implementation of carrying out the trial, to assess the adjuvant and supportive effect on lung cancer patients. Methods: The clinical study was designed as a randomized controlled trial to investigate the dose-dependent effects. Primary endpoint was the difference of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) score. Results: 41 eligible subjects were enrolled and randomly divided into 2 groups, 21 in high dose group and 20 in low dose group. Sub-domains of PWB (Physical well-being) and EWB (Emotional well-being) as well as FACT-G total score were significantly improved in high dose group when compared with low dose group after 12 weeks treatment (p = 0.015, 0.006 and 0.012, respectively). Conclusions: Holistic approach using quality of life as parameters to evaluate the efficacy of CM is an important compromise. Well-designed clinical trial can provide convincing evidence to support CM’s efficacy. The study demonstrated that quality of life of patients with lung cancer could be beneficial from the supportive care with CM.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Devel-opment Program of China(Grant No.2019YFA0210400)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.21836002 and 52104315)+1 种基金the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the Na-tional Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52121004)the Major program Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China(No.2021JC0001).
文摘Heavy metal(loid)s(HMs)have caused serious environmental pollution and health risks.Although the past few years have witnessed the achievements of studies on environmental behavior of HMs,the related toxicity mechanisms,and pollution control,their relationship remains a mystery.Researchers generally focused on one topic independently without comprehensive considerations due to the knowledge gap between environmental science and human health.Indeed,the full life cycle control of HMs is crucial and should be reconsidered with the combination of the occurrence,transport,and fate of HMs in the environment.Therefore,we started by reviewing the environmental behaviors of HMs which are affected by a variety of natural factors as well as their physicochemical properties.Furthermore,the related toxicity mechanisms were discussed according to exposure route,toxicity mechanism,and adverse consequences.In addition,the current state-of-the-art of available technologies for pollution control of HMs wastewater and solid wastes were summarized.Finally,based on the research trend,we proposed that advanced in-operando characterizations will help us better understand the fundamental reaction mechanisms,and big data analysis approaches will aid in establishing the prediction model for risk management.
