Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the major conventional treatments of cancer which will be implemented alone or in combination or along with surgery through which one-half of the cancer patients are benefited worldwide. Radiotherapy uses ionizing radiations capable of generating reactive oxygen species which then react with cellular macromolecules resulting in cellular dysfunction and death. Meanwhile chemotherapy involves the administration of chemotherapeutic agents which cause toxicity to vigorously dividing cells like cancer cells. But due to their non-specificity towards normal tissues and other severe side effects such as immune suppression, breakdown of antioxidant defence system, gastrointestinal toxicity etc., the amount of chemotherapeutic agents or the dose of radiation that can be given against malignant tumours are often limited, but unavoidable in the present scenario. Therefore, the availability of chemoprotective and radioprotective agents which can protect normal tissues from these damaging effects during and after the course of treatment, will improve the outcome and quality of cancer treatment strategies.

The toxicities produced by the chemotherapy and radiation therapy comes are having similar pathophysiology as that of garavisha told in Agadatantra. The Kalyanaka Ghrtha, mentioned in Susrutha Samhitha Kalpasthanam – vishachikitsa prakaranam, is such a formulation which is mainly indicated for visha and gara. The chemoprotective and radioprotective roles of Kalyanaka Ghrtha has been statistically evaluated in Balb/c mice subjected to chemotherapeutic agent, cyclophosphamide (CTX), and radiation exposure respectively. Thus it can be concluded that Kalyanaka Ghrtha can be a favourable lead which can defend against the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy which will provide a new dimension for the present cancer management strategies.

Key words: Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Agadatantra, Kalyanaka ghrta