Clinical study of matrine injection on preventing liver function damage of anti-tumor drugs during chemotherapy of breast cancer

Objective: To study the effect of matrine injection on preventing liver function damage of anti-tumor drugs during chemotherapy of breast cancer.

Methods: 167 times of chemotherapy were performed and divided into two groups (the control and treatment group: 86 times for the treatment one, 81 times for the control). In control group, regular hepatinica was used, conbining with matrine injection 150 mg and infusion once a day for two weeks in treatment group. Serum levels of alamine aminotransterase (ALT), aspartate amiotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), Serum total bilirubin (STB) were tested before, after two weeks and after three weeks of chemotherapy in two groups.

Results: The levels of ALT, AST, GGT, STB significantly increased (P < 0.05). The levels of ALT and AST in control group were higher than that in treatment one. There were no severe side-effects of matrine.

Conclusions: Matrine injection may be used safely and possess less side-effects on lowing serum levels of ALT, AST, GGT, STB in patients with breast cancer during chemotherapy so it can be used as adjuvant to prevent damages of the liver function for chemotherapy of patients with breast cancer.