OBJECTIVETo explore the therapeutic effect and mechanism of Aitongping capsule (ATP) in treating cancerous pain.

METHODSSixty cancer patients were randomly divided into two groups, 30 patients in the treated group took ATP and 30 patients in the control group took diclofenac, 1 week of treatment was applied. The relevant clinical conditions of cancerous pain, the content of plasma beta-endorphin (beta-EP) and c-AMP, hemorheological index, improuement of life quality of patients, occurrence rate of adverse reaction were observed before and after treatment.

RESULTSThe total effective rate in the treated group and in the control group was 90.0 % and 83.3%, respectively, difference between them showed no significance. However, there were significant difference between the two groups in such aspects as the degree of pain relieving, the decrease of pain episodes, the shortening persistent time of pain and the initiation time of analgesic action and prolonged analgesic duration, the decrease of tenderness and percussion pain, the increase of plasma beta-EP content and the decrease of cAMP (P< 0.05 or P< 0.01). The evidences also showed that it was better in improving quality of life, ameliorating hemorheologic indexes and reducing incidence of adverse reaction in the treated group than in the control group (P <0.05 or P <0.01).

CONCLUSIONATP has affirmative effect on cancerous pain, its analgesic effect may be associated with the increasing of plasma beta-EP content, decreasing of cAMP level and ameliorating of hemorheologic indexes.