Bojungikki-tang for cancer-related fatigue: a pilot randomized clinical trial

Bojungikki-tang (Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang in Chinese or Hochu-ekki-to in Japanese) is a widely used herbal prescription in traditional medicine in China, Japan, and Korea. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Bojungikki-tang for cancer-related fatigue.

A total of 40 patients with cancer-related fatigue were randomized into an experimental or a waiting list control group. Patients in the experimental group were treated with Bojungikki-tang (TJ-41) and patients in the waiting list group remained without any intervention for 2 weeks.

The experimental group showed statistically significant improvements in fatigue level assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale of Global Fatigue (VAS-F) measuring the severity of fatigue (experimental vs control: -1.1 ± 2.1 vs 0.1 ± 0.9, P < .05) and results of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue (FACT-F), and Trial Outcome Index-Fatigue (TOI-F) also showed significant improvements (FACT-G, 3.7 ± 9.9 vs -2.4 ± 9.5, P < .05; FACT-F,F, 8.0 ± 13.6 vs -2.2 ± 14.1, P < .05; TOI-F, 6.5 ± 9.2 vs -0.5 ± 10.9, P < .05).

The results of this study indicate that Bojungikki-tang may have beneficial effects on cancer-related fatigue and quality of lives in cancer patients. More rigorous trials are needed to confirm the efficacy of Bojungikki-tang.