The combined use of Patriniae Herba and FOLFOX in colon cancer treatment – a preclinical integrative medicine study

Patriniae Herba (PH) is commonly prescribed by Chinese medicine practitioners to colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, thus the concurrent use of PH with chemotherapeutics of CRC is likely to occur. Although our previous studies [ 1 ] [ 2 ] have demonstrated anti-tumor effects of PH aqueous extract (PHW) in colon cancer animal models, there is no scientific evidence to justify the therapeutic benefit of its combined use with chemotherapeutics, nor unwanted herb-drug interaction reported. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the combined use of PHW and FOLFOX (5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin), one of the first-line chemotherapy regimen for CRC, in terms of the anti-tumor efficacy and the metabolism of FOLFOX component drugs, in preclinical models. Nude mice bearing human HCT116 colon xenograft were treated with FOLFOX and/or PHW for three weeks, with tumors and blood collected at end-point for analysis. The levels of metabolizing enzymes/molecules of FOLFOX component drugs in blood were also determined. Results showed that the combined PHW and FOLFOX treatments exerted stronger inhibitory effect on tumor growth, when compared with PHW or FOLFOX alone treatments. Besides, oral administration of PHW did not significantly alter the plasma levels of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase and cysteine, in colon xenograft-bearing mice, indicating that PHW would not interfere the metabolism of FOLFOX component drugs. In conclusion, the beneficial potentials and the safety of combined use of PHW and FOLFOX have been scientifically verified, which justified their combination use as an integrative medicine approach in colon cancer management. Acknowledgement : HKSAR Health and Medical Research Fund (09203106). Publication History Article published online: 05 March 2026 © 2026. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany