Efficacy of individualized homoeopathic medicines in LM potencies in reducing cancer-related fatigue: A series of n-of-1 trials

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is defined as a “distressing, persistent, subjective sense of physical, emotional, and/or cognitive tiredness or exhaustion, related to cancer or cancer treatment, that is not proportional to recent activity and interferes with usual functioning.” This fatigue is considered to be multidimensional in nature, and a hallmark feature is that CRF is not generally relieved by rest.  CRF may result from the disease itself or from treatments, and it often worsens during the acute treatment timeframe. Estimates of the prevalence of CRF range from 25% to 99%, depending on the type and stage of cancer, type of treatment received. CRF is associated with significant physical and psychological impairments and a decrease in overall quality of life during and after cancer treatment. Homoeopathy may have immense potential to offer in the successful treatment of CRF, but it has remained seriously under-researched till date. Under such circumstances, we intend to undertake this research project to evaluate the efficacy and safety of individualized homoeopathic medicines (IHMs) in the treatment of CRF in adults. A series of double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled n-of-1 trials will be conducted on 21 adults who are suffering from CRF at the outpatient’s department of D. N. De. Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital. Assessment will be done by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue (FACIT-F) score (primary outcome), the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey Questionnaire, and the Wu Cancer Fatigue Scale (WCFS) score (secondary outcome) every 20 days up to 2 months. Comparative analysis will be carried out to detect group differences. The results will be published in scientific journals.