• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 2011

Objective : This study reports one case of urachal cancer patient treated with oriental medicine. Methods : One patient who was diagnosed with stage IVB urachal cancer was admitted and treated using different modalities of herbs, acupuncture, and pharmacopuncture. An herbal formula, Hang-Am Plus, Myun-Yuk Plus, and Nobongbiki-jung was given three times a day with daily acupuncture treatment session, in addition to Sweet bee venum pharmacopuncture injection which were administered two~three times a week. After treatment, patient's symptoms and blood test results were observed and analyzed. Results : During treatment, symptoms and laboratory findings of patient were maintained in stable condition about 4 months, and the patient survived during 22 months after operation (5.5 months after oriental medicine treatment). Conclusions : This case study shows minimum evidence of efficacy of oriental medicine for managing symptoms of urachal cancer. Considering this is only single case study, further research is needed to confirm these results.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.247-259
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• 2020

Objectives: This review aims to investigate clinical studies related to bee venom pharmacopuncture for cancer patients and to analyze the research trend for further study. Methods: We searched for clinical studies using bee venom pharmacopuncture therapy on patients with cancer through the electronic databases including Pubmed, Cochrane library, OASIS, KISS, NDSL, and KMBASE. There was no restriction on language and publication date, and after selection/exclusion process, the study design, target disease, intervention details including acupoints, treatment frequency and period, outcomes, study results and adverse events were extracted. Results: Thirteen clinical studies were finally selected. There were a randomized controlled trial RCT about the effect of sweet bee venom pharmacopuncture on cancer-related pain, and three case series about chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. In case reports, there were nine studies about oligodendroglioma, plexiform neurofibroma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, urachal adenocarcinoma, malignant melanoma, and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance. The bee venom therapy affected the improvement of outcomes such as symptoms, quality of life, tumor response, and lab findings. Conclusions: The present study found that bee venom therapy is applicable to the treatment of cancer patients, and showed some effect on various symptoms. However, due to insufficient number and quality of studies, well designed and high-quality clinical trials are necessary to confirm the effectiveness and safety of bee venom pharmacopuncture therapy in patients with cancer.