Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia in Pediatric Leukemia: Persian Medicine Perspective

With lots of interest, we read the paper by Aminian and Yousefi [1]. They had discussed the concept of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in Persian medicine (PM) and compared it with the modern medicine viewpoints. Other than CINV, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) is a common complication of treatment in cancer patients. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Leukemia is the most common type of malignancy in children, among which acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent one [2]. Although chemotherapy has dramatically improved the long-term survival of the patients [3], it itself could be the cause of various complications including neutropenia. CIN is hematologic toxicity, which in turn increases the probability of infection, duration of hospitalization, and the need for antibiotics and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) consumption. Nowadays, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is commonly used by children with cancer [4]. In this regard, herbal medicine as a popular branch of CAM with a very long history of usage [5], has shown a great potential for anti-cancer treatment.