BACKGROUND

Pain is one of the most commonly reported symptoms in patients with advanced cancer, but is still less than optimally treated. The effect of traditional Chinese medicine in cancer pain treatment is nowadays getting more and more attention.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effect of a coix seed oil injection on cancer pain relief in a cancer center in a tertiary hospital in China.

METHODS

Patients in the treatment group received a coix seed oil injection for 2 weeks, while patients in the control group received equivalent 0.9% saline. The numeric rating scale was used to assess the pain level. The Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 was used to assess life quality. The adverse drug reactions during the treatment process were observed.

RESULTS

Patients in the coix seed treatment group had significantly superior efficacy on pain control over those in the control group. Coix seed therapy significantly improved patients' scores reflecting by the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (QLQ-C30) scale. In addition, the occurrence of adverse reactions such as constipation and nausea in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

The coix seed oil injection effectively reduced the pain level of cancer patients, significantly improved their life quality, and had no obvious adverse effects.