A Prospective and Randomized Control Study on Effects of Thymalfasin for Injection on Perioperative Immune Function and Long-term Prognosis of Patients with Colorectal Cancer.
Niu. Wenbo W; Li. Zhiying Z; Li. Zhihan Z; Hu. Xuhua X; Wang. Xiaoran X; Ding. Yuanyi Y; Li. Chenhui C; Yu. Bin B
Key Findings
- Thymosin‑alpha‑1 (1.6 mg) twice or thrice weekly reduced peri‑operative infection rates compared to chemo alone
- Overall postoperative complications, local recurrence, and distant metastasis were lower in the thymosin‑treated groups
- Immune function indices were higher and median disease‑free survival was longer in patients receiving thymosin‑alpha‑1
Practical Outcomes
- The data suggest thymosin‑alpha‑1 can boost immune function in the stressful setting of cancer surgery at 1.6 mg twice weekly, but the benefit was shown only in patients with colorectal cancer. For biohackers, the findings are not directly transferable to healthy individuals, and higher dosing frequency did not add advantage, so any off‑label use should be approached cautiously.
Summary
A study in 400 colorectal‑cancer surgery patients found that giving thymosin‑alpha‑1 (thymalfasin) at 1.6 mg twice or three times a week lowered infection rates, reduced post‑surgery complications, and improved immune markers and disease‑free survival, but the two dosing schedules performed similarly.
Abstract
The objective of this study is to explore the effects of thymalfasin for injection on perioperative immune function and long-term prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). In total, 400 patients who entered the groups from February 2019 to January 2021 and underwent radical resection of CRC in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University were the study subjects. They were separated into experimental group (0-199, XELOX chemotherapy and thymalfasin for injection) and control group (200-400, XELOX chemotherapy) by random number table, and the experimental group was randomly divided into conventional-dose group (<i>n</i> = 100, 1.6 mg of thymalfasin for injection, twice a week) and high-dose group (<i>n</i> = 100, 1.6 mg of thymalfasin for injection, thrice a week) according to a ratio of 1:1, to analyze the effects of different treatment schemes on perioperative immune function and long-term prognosis of CRC patients. Compared with control group, the conventional-dose group and high-dose group had notably lower incidences of perioperative infection (P < 0.05), with no significant difference in both groups (P > 0.05). The experimental group had significantly lower overall incidence of early and late postoperative complications, local recurrence rate and the incidence of distant metastasis, and higher perioperative immune function indexes and median disease free survival (DFS) (P < 0.05).         The conventional-dose and high-dose thymalfasin for injection effectively improves the perioperative immune function of CRC patients and reduces the incidence of postoperative complications, as an effective treatment for such patients, which can benefit patients.
Study Information
pubmed
2023
2023-05-29T00:00:00.000Z
10.1080/02648725.2023.2216972
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