Dataset Information

Chemotherapy in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine for survival of patients with early female breast cancer: protocol for a non-randomized, single center prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer plays a fundamental role in reducing the risk of distant and local recurrence. An increasing number of patients seek traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) during adjuvant chemotherapy to relieve symptom discomfort and side effects as well as to strengthen the body's defenses. However, evidence on how concurrent TCM treatment affects prognosis is scarce. This trial aims to evaluate the association between TCM treatment and disease-free survival outcomes for patients with early breast cancer who are undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy.

Methods/design

This is a non-randomized, single center, prospective cohort study begun in November 2018 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. A sample of 310 participants diagnosed with early breast cancer was recruited from the Breast Cancer Research Team and will be followed up every 3 to 6 months until October 2023. Detailed information of the participants, including general information, history of cancer, quality of life, side effects and safety of treatment, TCM body constitution, and meridian energy analysis, was collected face to face at baseline.

Discussion

This is the first prospective observational cohort study on TCM in patients with early breast cancer who are receiving adjuvant chemotherapy to evaluate the prognosis. Through this trial, we hope to assess the feasibility of a larger-scale clinical trial in the future and formulate an integrated TCM care program.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03797248. Registered on 5 January 2019.

SUBMITTER: Liu CT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6918648 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Chemotherapy in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine for survival of patients with early female breast cancer: protocol for a non-randomized, single center prospective cohort study.

Liu Chien-Ting CT Chen Yen-Hao YH Huang Yu-Chuen YC Chen Shih-Yu SY Tsai Ming-Yen MY

Trials 20191217 1

<h4>Background</h4>Chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer plays a fundamental role in reducing the risk of distant and local recurrence. An increasing number of patients seek traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) during adjuvant chemotherapy to relieve symptom discomfort and side effects as well as to strengthen the body's defenses. However, evidence on how concurrent TCM treatment affects prognosis is scarce. This trial aims to evaluate the association between TCM treatment and disease-free ...[more]

PMID: 31847861

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Project description:Background:Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) has attracted increasing attention in developed countries, but its mainstream status in China, the home of TCAM, is unclear. Over the period of 2004-2016, we analyze the health resources and health resource utilization of traditional medicine in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals in China. Methods:Over 2004-2016, we obtained data from all TCM hospitals in all Chinese provinces to create a hospital-based, longitudinal dataset. TCM health resources and their utilization were measured by two outcome variables: (1) primary outcome variables comprising the proportion of TCM physicians, TCM pharmacists, revenue from TCM drugs, and TCM prescriptions and (2) the secondary outcome variables, as proxies of westernization for TCM hospitals, comprising the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 and the proportion of surgery in inpatient visits. We used linear regression models with hospital-fixed effects to analyze time trends for the outcome variables. Results:The number of public TCM hospitals remained stable from 2004 to 2016, while the number of private TCM hospitals increased from 294 in 2004 to 1560 in 2016. There was a small percentage increase in the proportion of TCM physicians (0.280%), TCM pharmacists (0.298%), and revenue from Chinese medicines (0.331%) and TCM prescriptions (1.613%) per hospital per year. Chinese drugs accounted for less than a half of the total drug prescriptions, and accordingly, just one-third of the drug revenue was from Chinese medicines at TCM hospitals. The proportions of physicians, pharmacists, revenue from Chinese drug sales, and traditional medicine prescriptions never reach the 60% benchmark target for mainstream in TCM hospitals. As proxies for Western medicine practices in TCM hospitals, the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 rapidly rose by over 13 percent per hospital per year, but the proportion of inpatient surgeries declined by 0.830 percentage points per hospital per year, reflecting a mixed trend in the use of Western medicine practices. Conclusion:For the 2004-2016 period, traditional medicine, although making progress towards the mainstream benchmark of 60% TCM services, was still not mainstream at TCM hospitals.

Dataset Information

Chemotherapy in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine for survival of patients with early female breast cancer: protocol for a non-randomized, single center prospective cohort study.

Background

Methods/design

Discussion

Trial registration

Publications

Chemotherapy in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine for survival of patients with early female breast cancer: protocol for a non-randomized, single center prospective cohort study.

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