The effect of long-term traditional Chinese medicine treatment on disease-free survival of postoperative stage I-III lung cancer patients: a retrospective cohort study
Journal Title: Traditional Medicine Research - Year 2019, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
Objective: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been extensively used as one of popular alternative therapies for several cancers. However, it remains unclear whether TCM treatment is associated with longer survival in lung cancer patients. In this study, we explored the effect of long-term TCM treatment on patients with different stages of lung cancer. Methods: All information of lung cancer patients with stage I-III disease from January 2007 to September 2015 was collected for this retrospective cohort study. Those who were treated with TCM after surgery were divided into TCM group and the others were into the non-TCM group (control group). All patients were regularly followed up by clinic appointment or phone, and all survival data were collected from databases after the last follow-up in October 2017. Results: A total of 575 patients were included in this study, with 299 patients in the TCM group and 276 in the control group. For all patients, 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 62.2% in TCM group and 42.1% in the control group, and 6-year DFSs were 51.8% and 35.4%, respectively (HR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.40 to 0.66, log-rank P ≤ 0.001). For patients with stage I, 5-year DFSs were 83.7% (TCM group) and 57.5% (control group) and 6-year DFSs were 73.7% and 51.9%, respectively (HR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.50, log-rank P ≤ 0.001). For patients with stage II in the TCM group and the control group, 5-year DFSs were 59.4% and 17.6% and 6-year DFSs were 44.7% and 17.6%, respectively (HR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.52, log-rank P ≤ 0.001), and for patients with stage III, 5-year and 6-year DFSs in the TCM group were 18.7% and 12.5% compared with 28.4% and 20.3% in the control group (HR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.72 to 1.56, log-rank P = 0.76). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that long-term TCM treatment as an adjuvant therapy is able to improve the DFS of postoperative stage I-III lung cancer patients, especially in patients with stage I and II disease. However, these observational findings need being validated by large sample randomized controlled trials.
Authors and Affiliations
Su-Tong Liu, Su-Fang Zhang,Kai-Qi Su, Ying-Bin Luo, Zhi-Hong Fang, Yuan Fang, Jing Xu, Jian-Chun Wu,Yan Li
Study on alantolactone-induced differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into vascular cells
To promote efficient screening of active angiogenic drugs from traditional medicines, we constructed a human embryonic kidney-293 cell model using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene promoter as the drug targe...
What are the challenges facing cancer therapy base on the dissipative structure theory
Cancer therapy is facing challenges. Since current theory could not have a breakthrough, we ought to find a new way to conquer cancer by exploring the emerging theory in cancer therapy. The complexity science, emerging i...
Gemcitabine and cisplatin combined with the Chinese herbal medicine compound Fuzhenggubenfang improve quality of life and progression-free survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer
Objective: To assess the role of chemotherapy combined with the compound Chinese herbal medicine, Fuzhenggubenfang (FZGBF), for treating advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods: A total of 84 eligible patients were...
Traditional Chinese medicine of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge: a review of phytochemistry, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics
Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, known as red sage or Danshen, is commonly applied in Chinese herbal therapeutics for various biological effects. In 25–220 C.E., the earliest Chinese Materia Medica referred to as Shengong’s Cl...
Camel milk could be helpful in the treatment of asthma
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease with excessive irritability and airway narrowing and inflammation plays an important role in it. There are 300 million asthmatic people in the world currently. Main treatments for...