Review Article A Survey of Chinese Medicinal Herbal Treatment for Chemotherapy-Induced Oral Mucositis

Copyright © 2013 Gesa Meyer-Hamme et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oral mucositis is one of the common side effects of chemotherapy treatment with potentially severe implications. Despite several treatment approaches by conventional and complementary western medicine, the therapeutic outcome is often not satisfactory. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers empirical herbal formulas for the treatment of oral ulceration which are used in adaptation to chemotherapy-induced mucositis. While standard concepts for TCM treatment do not exist and acceptance by conventional oncologists is still low, we conducted a review to examine the evidence of Chinese herbal treatment in oral mucositis. Eighteen relevant studies on 4 single herbs, 2 combinations of 2 herbs, and 11 multiherbal prescriptions involving 3 or more compounds were included. Corresponding molecular mechanisms were investigated. The knowledge about detailed herbal mechanisms, especially in multi-herbal prescriptions is still limited.The quality of clinical trials needs further improvement. Meta