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Gastric cancer remains a serious global health burden, and interest in traditional Chinese medicine formulas as adjunct treatments continues to grow. Buzhong Yiqi Decoction is a classical traditional Chinese medicine formula traditionally used to tonify the spleen and stomach, and researchers sought to evaluate both its clinical effectiveness and its possible biological mechanisms in gastric cancer treatment.
The team conducted a meta-analysis drawing on seven major databases, identifying 15 randomised controlled trials involving 1,176 patients — 588 receiving Buzhong Yiqi Decoction-based therapy and 588 in control groups. They measured clinical efficacy, two-year survival rates, functional status using Karnofsky performance scores, and rates of adverse reactions. Separately, using network pharmacology tools including the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database, the GeneCards database, and molecular docking technology, they mapped 150 active ingredients of the formula to 136 targets relevant to gastric cancer, exploring pathways such as apoptosis and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B signalling pathway.
Across all clinical outcome measures, the Buzhong Yiqi Decoction treatment group performed significantly better than controls, with statistically significant differences in both efficacy and adverse reaction rates. Molecular docking confirmed strong affinity between the formula’s core compounds and key biological targets.
Conclusion: This combined meta-analysis and network pharmacology study provides evidence that Buzhong Yiqi Decoction may be an effective and relatively safe adjunct in gastric cancer treatment, while also offering preliminary insight into its underlying molecular mechanisms.
Source: Yang R, Wu Y, Tao C et al. Medicine (2026). View on PubMed (PMID 42216390) · doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000049076
