Current evidence for Banxia Xiexin decoction in gastrointestinal tumors and future research perspectives

Gastrointestinal malignancies constitute a leading contributor to global cancer-related mortality, with an annually increasing incidence rate. More therapy techniques are urgently needed to improve clinical efficacy and patient quality of life. In the therapeutic treatment of digestive tract malignancies, Banxia Xiexin Decoction (BXD), a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, offers benefits such enhancing postoperative and post-chemotherapy unpleasant reactions, decreasing postoperative recurrence and enhancing the synergistic effect of combined chemotherapy medications. It is still unknown, though, if BXD is beneficial in the treatment of cancers of the digestive tract.

This paper summarized recent literatures on BXD for Gastrointestinal Tumors,and provide a thorough explanation of the mechanism of BXD, and further clarify the fundamental function of BXD in conjunction with modern, innovative theory and technology. Providing evidence for the therapeutic utility of BXD in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.

Relevant literature was collected from various electronic databases such as Pubmed, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Citations were based on peer-reviewed articles published in English or Chinese during the last 5-6 years.

There are several ways that BXD treats tumors of the digestive tract: it reduces inflammation, induces apoptosis in tumor cells, inhibits the growth, migration, and invasion of tumor cells, reverses multi-drug resistance in tumors, and modifies the gut microbiota and tumor microenvironment.Additionally, we also pointed out that more accurate clinical trials and molecular studies are required to confirm the clinical drug specification and security of BXD in the treatment of digestive tract tumors, as the mechanism studies and clinical studies on the effects of the drug on immune regulation and the tumor hypoxic microenvironment are not flawless.