Ruanjian Oral Liquid: An Anti-Cancer Chinese Patent Medicine
Ruanjian Koufuye (Ruanjian Oral Liquid) is an anti-cancer Chinese patent medicine. Its composition is: Baifuzi (processed Typhonii Rhizoma), Sanleng (Sparganii Rhizoma), Chonglou (Paridis Rhizoma), Banzhilian (Scutellariae Barbatae Herba), Shandougen (Sophorae Tonkinensis Radix), Jinyinhua (Lonicerae Flos), Banlangen (Isatidis Radix), Shancigu (Cremastrae/Pleione Pseudobulbus), Yanhusuo (vinegar-processed Corydalis), Yimucao (Leonuri Herba), Renshen (Ginseng), and Huangqi (Astragalus).
Ruanjian Oral Liquid is a brownish-red liquid with a slightly bitter taste. Its main actions are resolving stasis and softening hardness, supplementing qi and fortifying the spleen, and clearing heat and resolving toxin. It may be used in patients with stage II primary liver cancer presenting with stasis-toxin and qi deficiency. It improves symptoms such as hypochondriac pain, poor appetite, and fatigue caused by liver cancer. It may be used as adjuvant therapy for primary liver cancer and may also be combined with chemotherapy and interventional therapy to enhance their efficacy.
Because Ruanjian Oral Liquid is not listed in the medical-insurance formulary, its use is not widespread; few manufacturers currently produce it, it is hard to buy at offline pharmacies, and patients need to seek out purchasing channels.
Ruanjian Oral Liquid alone has limited efficacy against liver cancer. When treating liver cancer it may be combined with other Chinese patent medicines that have some effect on liver cancer, such as Renshen Biejia Jianwan, Fuchangle Tablets, Xihuang Wan, Fufang Banmao Capsule, and Huachansu Tablets. Liver cancer is very hard to cure, especially at the middle and advanced stages; treatment can mostly improve quality of life and modestly prolong survival. Thus, when taking this medicine, patients should not hold out overly high expectations.
Although Sanleng, Baifuzi, and Yanhusuo in this product have some analgesic effect and can relieve cancer pain in liver-cancer patients, their effect is limited. Patients with cancer pain in advanced liver cancer may simultaneously use external analgesics such as Anyang Jingzhi Gao and Chanwu Babugao. Patients with severe cancer pain need to take various internal analgesics according to the three-step analgesic ladder.