Adjunctive traditional Chinese medicine therapy improves survival in patients with advanced breast cancer: a population-based study.
BACKGROUND
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the most common complementary and alternative medicines used in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. However, the clinical effect of TCM on survival, which is a major concern in these individuals, lacks evidence from large-scale clinical studies.


METHODS
The authors used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to conduct a retrospective population-based cohort study of patients with advanced breast cancer between 2001 and 2010. The patients were separated into TCM users and nonusers, and Cox regression models were applied to determine the association between the use of TCM and patient survival.


RESULTS
A total of 729 patients with advanced breast cancer receiving taxanes were included in the current study. Of this cohort, the mean age was 52.0 years; 115 patients were TCM users (15.8%) and 614 patients were TCM nonusers. The mean follow-up was 2.8 years, with 277 deaths reported to occur during the 10-year period. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that, compared with nonusers, the use of TCM was associated with a significantly decreased risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazards ratio [HR], 0.55 [95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.90] for TCM use of 30-180 days; adjusted HR, 0.46 [95% confidence interval, 0.27-0.78] for TCM use of >180 days). Among the frequently used TCMs, those found to be most effective (lowest HRs) in reducing mortality were Bai Hua She She Cao, Ban Zhi Lian, and Huang Qi.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the current observational study suggest that adjunctive TCM therapy may lower the risk of death in patients with advanced breast cancer. Future randomized controlled trials are required to validate these findings.
School of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Anesthesiology, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yuan-Wen
YW
Lee
Ta-Liang
TL
Chen
Yu-Ru Vernon
YR
Shih
Chu-Lin
CL
Tsai
Chuen-Chau
CC
Chang
Hung-Hua
HH
Liang
Sung-Hui
SH
Tseng
Shu-Chen
SC
Chien
Ching-Chiung
CC
Wang
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D043823:Taxoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D043823:Taxoids
National Health Insurance Research Database; breast cancer; complementary and alternative medicine; taxane; traditional Chinese medicine