Purpose: To investigate the influence of reduced glutathione (GSH) in liver function, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, immune function and quality of life of patients after an interventional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods: 96 hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing hepatic arterial intervention chemotherapy were selected and randomly divided into the control group (n=48) and the observation group (n=48). The patients in the control group were given conventional treatment after operation, while those in the observation group were treated with GSH based on the treatment in the control group. The liver function, oxidative stress, inflammation, quality of life and adverse reactions were compared before and after treatment between the two groups.
Results: The levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), cluster of differentiation (CD)3+, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ as well as physical, emotion and social function scores after treatment were higher in the observation group than in the control group. The observation group had lower levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBiL), malondialdehyde (MDA), advanced oxidation protein product (AOPP), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and CD8+ as well as pain score than the control group (p<0.05). The total effective rate in the observation group was remarkably higher than in the control group (p<0.05), while there were no significant differences in disease control rate and clinical adverse reactions between the two groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions: GSH can evidently ameliorate the liver function and immune function, reduce oxidative stress and inflammatory response and improve the postoperative quality of life of the patients after the interventional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, with satisfactory clinical therapeutic effects, so it is worthy of further application and generalization.