Abstract: Objective  To investigate the effectiveness of disodium cantharidinate and vitamin B6 injection for cancer-related fatigue in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients of Ⅲ-ⅣB stage undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Methods  Eighty nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients of Ⅲ-ⅣB stage with fatigue symptoms from December 2011 to May 2012 in our hospital were divided into two groups. All patients received treatment of sequential 3 cycles with platinum-based chemotherapy after concurrent chemoradiation. One group of 40 patients also received intravenous infusion of disodium cantharidinate and vitamin B6 injection (experimental group), the other group of 40 patients only received conventional therapy (control group). Brief fatigue inventory (BFI) questionnaires data were collected at baseline, the eighth week and the twentieth week after treatment. The changes of fatigue severity and the occurrence of Ⅲ~Ⅳ degree adverse reactions in the two groups were compared . Results  At the eighth week, the improvement in fatigue severity was not significantly different between two groups (?2=1.758, P=0.32). However, significant improvement in cancer-related fatigue of experimental group was found than that of control group at the twentieth week. The Ⅲ~Ⅳ degree adverse reactions of experimental group were significantly lower than that of control group (?2=8.12, P=0.005). Conclusion  Disodium cantharidinate and vitamin B6 injection combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy can improve the cancer-related fatigue of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients of Ⅲ~ⅣB stage and it can also reduce the incidence rate of Ⅲ~Ⅳ degree adverse reactions (?2=6.144, P=0.031).

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasms, Fatigue, Disodium cantharidinate and vitamin B6 injection