M. Tech. / AIM: To determine the efficacy of Astragalus membranaceous tincture at maintaining the circulating white blood cell count (WBC) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: This is an open-label study with an active control group. Both the study and control group consisted of fifteen participants. The participants in the study group each received ten millilitres of Astragalus membranaceous 1:2 tincture daily for the duration of their course of chemotherapy. RESULTS: The overall decrease in the WBC and ANC in the control was 4.9 and 3.13 parts per billion per litre, respectively. The study group showed an overall decrease of 2.7 and 1.9 parts per billion per litre, respectively. The average overall reduction in chemotherapy dose was 4.79 percent in the study group and 20.21 percent in the control. In all of the analyses p > 0.05. The small sample size, poor patient compliance and skewed distribution of the variables hindered the reliability of the results. CONCLUSION: The positive effects observed in the study group cannot be extrapolated to the entire population, however further research is strongly motivated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:6754 |
| Date | 08 April 2010 |
| Creators | Minnaar, Carrie-Anne |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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