Table 9.

Other effects of PSK in cancer therapy

References	Evaluation	Tumor characteristics	No. of patients	Treatment	Results
Kohara [102]	Toxicity of chemotherapy	Solid tumors	20 49	A: 5-FU (dry syrup) + PSK B: 5-FU (dry syrup)	Frequency of chemotherapy toxicity A: 7 cases (35.0%) B: 26 cases (53.1%)
Sadahiro [103]	Immune cells	Rectal cancer	15 15	A: RT+S-1+PSK (preoperative) B: RT+S-1 (preoperative)	Increases of the proportion of NK cells in the peripheral blood (P = 0.003) and cytotoxic T-cell counts in the peri-tumoral and normal mucosa (P=0.005, 0.003)
Yoshimura [104]	QOL	Stage III, IV adenocarcinoma of the lung, inoperable	10 10	A: CDDP+VDS+PSK B: CDDP+VDS	Good score of QOL A > B
Motai [105]	Cancerous pain	Nasopharyngeal carcinoma	31 31	A: PSK B: Non-PSK	Frequency of analgesic use A: 72.9 ± 16.2 B: 146.9 ± 43.6 P < 0.05

5-FU 5-fluorouracil, RT radiation therapy, S-1 tegafur–gimeracil–oteracil potassium, CDDP cisplatin, VDS vindesine, QOL quality of life