[Advances in research on immune mechanism of moxibustion for treating tumor]

Abstract

Treatment of tumors, especially the malignant tumors, is a world-class medical problem and still plagues clinicians and medical scientists a lot nowadays. Moxibustion therapy has been used in the treatment of tumors in clinic practice for many years and the related mechanism researches have achieved a lot of achievements. In the present paper, we reviewed researches on moxibustion treatment for tumor from the self-regulation of the immune system in patients and animal models. Outcomes display that moxibustion therapy has an action in resisting tumors by 1) regulating innate immune defensive function and enhancing adaptive immunity (by up-regulating activities of natural killer [NK] cells, and phagocytic function of macrophages), 2) stimulating cellular immunity (by increasing the ratio of CD4^＋/CD8^＋， lymphocyte transformation rate, etc.), and B lymphocyte-mediated humoral immunity (via regulating contents of IgG, IgA, IgM, etc.), 3) modulating levels of cytokines as interleukins, interferons, tumor necrosis factor superfamily colony stimulating factor, chemokine growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor，VEGF, etc., 4) regulating expression of many related proteins and genes, and 5) regulating related hormones, neurotransmitters, intracellular kinases signaling, etc., and other immune-related components.

Keywords: Mechanism; Moxibustion therapy; Review; Tumor.