To observe the clinical efficacy of tumor hyperthermia combined with Yiqi Fuzheng mixture in the treatment of lung cancer with malignant pleural effusion.

A total of 118 patients with lung cancer and malignant pleural effusion admitted to our hospital from January 2022 to January 2025 were selected and randomly divided into Group A 41 cases, Group B 40 cases, and Group C 37 cases. All patients underwent pleural puncture and catheter drainage. Group A received tumor hyperthermia alone, Group B received Yiqi Fuzheng mixture alone, and Group C received tumor hyperthermia combined with Yiqi Fuzheng mixture. The malignant pleural effusion remission rate, tumor marker parameters serum carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), total scores of primary and secondary symptoms in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score, and adverse reactions were compared among the groups.

After treatment, 37 cases (100.00%) in group C had remission of malignant pleural effusion, which was higher than 35 cases (85.37%) in group A and 32 cases (80.00%) in group B (P<0.05). After treatment, CA125, CEA, CYFRA21-1, and NSE in each group decreased compared with those before treatment. The levels of CA125 (19.97±5.13) U/ml, CEA (24.36±3.18) ng/ml, CYFRA21-1 (3.21±0.43) ng/ml, and NSE (21.23±3.84) ng/ml in group C were lower than those of group A[CA125(25.84±5.61) U/ml, CEA(28.12±4.39) ng/ml, CYFRA21-1(4.67±0.48)ng/ml, NSE(25.06±4.24) ng/ml] and group B[CA125(30.06±7.28) U/ml, CEA(32.11±4.96)ng/ml, CYFRA21-1(5.36±0.54) ng/ml, NSE(32.13±4.72)ng/ml] (P<0.05). The total main symptom score and secondary symptom total score of each group decreased after treatment, and the scores of main symptoms (5.27±1.02) and secondary symptom total score (2.01±0.76) in group C were lower than those of group A main symptoms(7.95±1.09), secondary symptom total score(2.97±0.82) and group B main symptoms(9.23±1.37), secondary symptom total score(3.74±0.91) (P<0.05). There were 13 cases (35.14%) of nausea, vomiting, and chest pain in group C, which were not statistically different from 16 cases (39.02%) in group A and 11 cases (27.50%) in group B (P>0.05). After one year follow up, 14 cases (34.15%) in group A survived, 27 cases (65.85%) died; 12 cases (30.00%) in group B survived, 28 cases (70.00%) died; 18 cases (48.65%) in group C survived, 19 cases (51.35%) died(χ²=3.124, P=0.210).

Tumor hyperthermia combined with Yiqi Fuzheng mixture in the treatment of lung cancer with malignant pleural effusion can effectively control fluid accumulation, reduce the levels of tumor markers CA125, CEA, CYFRA21-1, and NSE, and improve clinical symptoms, and has clinical significance.