Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cancer patients receiving Western medical treatment, frequently seek Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to alleviate adverse effects and prolong survival. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the association between the use of TCM and cancer survival rate. Research into the effect of TCM on patient survival is limited, this analysis focused on 3 patterns of TCM use. METHODS: Three retrospective cohorts with different patterns of TCM use were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan and analyzed. Patients with newly diagnosed cancer between 1997 and 2012 were classified into groups of prediagnosis, postdiagnosis, and continuous TCM use associated with awareness of cancer diagnosis. All demographic and clinical data were analyzed. RESULTS: After propensity score matching, longevity of the postdiagnosis and continuous TCM user was significantly longer than the non-TCM user. The adjusted hazard ratios of death in postdiagnosis and continuous TCM use groups (0.59 and 0.61, respectively) were lower than the non-TCM use group. CONCLUSION: The analysis suggests that cancer patients using TCM in conjunction with Western medical treatment exhibited a higher survival rate than patients not using TCM treatment.