Neutropenia - Treatments In traditional Chinese medicine perspective

Neutropenia is defined as a condition of  abnormally low number of neutrophils, as a  result of granulocyte disorder of that leads to Immunodeficiency with lower than normal  circulating white blood cells. Patients with neutropenia are susceptible to bacterial infections causes of neutropenic sepsis.
Neutropenia is either problems in the production of the cells by the bone marrow and destruction of the cells from somewhere else in the body, if  neutrophil count falls below 1,000 cells per microliter of blood.
Neutropenia can be classified into acute and chronic types, depending to the duration of the illness. Some researchers divided severity of the disease, depending to the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and is described as follows(a).
1. Mild neutropenia, when the ANC falls below a lower limit of 1500 per mm3 (1.5 x 109 /1), but remains higher than 1000 per mm3 (1.0 x 109 /1).
2. Moderate neutropenia, when the ANC falls between 500 per mm3 and 1000 per mm3 (0.5 x 109 /1 - 1.0 x 109 /1)
3. Severe neutropenia, when the ANC falls below 500 per mm3 (0.5 x 109 /1)
Treatments
In traditional Chinese medicine perspective 
1. Herbal extract granules
In the study applied the highest standard of clinical trial methodology to examine the role of CHM in reducing chemotherapy-induced toxicity, while maintaining a tailored approach to therapy with one hundred and twenty patients were accrued at the time of premature study termination. Enrolled patients were randomly assigned to one of three Chinese herbalists who evaluated and prescribed a combination of single-item packaged herbal extract granules. Patients received either CHM or placebo packages with a corresponding serial number. The placebo package contained nontherapeutic herbs with an artificial smell and taste similar to a typical herbal tea. The primary end points were hematologic and non-hematologic toxicity according to the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria Version found that patient characteristics of the two groups were similar. The incidence of grade 3/4 anemia, leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia for the CHM and placebo groups were 5.4%, 47.3%, 52.7%, and 1.8% and 1.8%, 32.2%, 44.7%, and 3.6%, respectively (P = 0.27, 0.37, 0.63, and 0.13, respectively). Incidence of grade 2 nausea was the only non-hematologic toxicity that was significantly reduced in the CHM group (14.6% versus 35.7%, P = 0.04)(69).

2. Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP)
In the study to nvestigate the therapeutic effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) on mitomycin C (MMC)-induced myelosuppressive mice, found that LBP at 100 mg/kg (LBP-L) on day 14 and LBP at 200 mg/kg (LBP-H) on days 10, 14, 17, 19 and 21, significantly ameliorated the decrease of peripheral RBC, HGB and hematocrit (HCT) of myelosuppressive mice compared to the control. LBP-L on days 12 and days 14 and LBP-H on days 10, 12, 14, 17, 19 and 21, significantly enhanced peripheral PLT recovery of myelosuppressive mice compared to the control. LBP-H on days 12, 17, 19 and 21, significantly inhibited the increase of mean platelet volume (MPV) of myelosuppressive mice compared to the control. LBP showed no obviously effect on neutropenia induced in mice by MMC(70).

3.  Fu Zheng and the Gong Xiao
In the study of observed the effect of chemotherapy combined with Chinese herbs and western drugs on white blood cell count in 31 patients with gastric cancer with patients were divided into 3 groups: (1) Fu Zheng (strengthen the body resistance) with invigorating the Spleen and Kidney recipe; (2) Fu Zheng with western drugs raising WBC and enhancing immunity; (3) Gong Xiao (eliminating the evil factors and mass) with promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis recipe or eliminating the evil factors and mass recipe, suggested that invigorating the Spleen and Kidney recipe had specific effect on decreasing the toxicity and side effect of chemotherapy, preventing bone marrow suppression and leukopenia, and was better than western drugs used in group II. It showed in the treatment of cancer with TCM, we must pay attention to the relationship between the Fu Zheng and the Gong Xiao(71). 

3. Chinese herbal medicine
In the study to evaluate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in improving quality of life (QOL), reducing chemotoxicity and modulating immune function in patients undergoing chemotherapy, found that there was no significant difference in the GHS between the two groups. With adjustment for stage, chemotherapy type, disease status, age and baseline value, emotional function, cognitive function and nausea and vomiting were found to be worse or less improved in the TCM group compared with placebo group after six cycles of chemotherapy. The TCM group had less neutropenia after three cycles (0% grade 4 neutropenia versus 28.6%). There were no other significant differences in terms of chemotoxicity. Lymphocyte counts and cytokine activities decreased less in the TCM group(72).
 Other inthe searching of The Cochrane Breast Cancer Specialised Register (15/02/2007), The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); (The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 4); MEDLINE (1966 to December 2006); EMBASE (1990 to December 2006); and Chinese Biomedical Literature (2006, Issue 4), indicated that the searching provides limited evidence about the effectiveness and safety of Chinese medicinal herbs in alleviating chemotherapy induced short term side effects. Chinese medicinal herbs, when used together with chemotherapy, may offer some benefit to breast cancer patients in terms of bone marrow improvement and quality of life, but the evidence is too limited to make any confident conclusions(73).
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Sources
(a) http://www.neutropenia.ca/about/what-is-neutropenia
(69) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17229769
(70) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15724837
(71) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2292116
(72) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21355071
(73) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17443560