Association Between Chinese Medicine Therapy and Survival Outcomes in Postoperative Patients with NSCLC: A Multicenter, Prospective, Cohort Study

Overview

Journal Chin J Integr Med

Date 2019 Sep 1

PMID 31471834

Citations 18

Authors

Xue-Qian Wang

Ying Zhang

Wei Hou

Ying-Tian Wang

Jia-Bin Zheng

Jie Li

Li-Zhu Lin

Yi-Lan Jiang

Shen-Yu Wang

Ying Xie

Hong-Liang Zhang

Qi-Jin Shu

Ping Li

Wei Wang

Jian-Liang You

Ge Li

Jie Liu

Hui-Ting Fan

Mei-Ying Zhang

Hong-Sheng Lin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the association between Chinese medicine (CM) therapy and disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes in postoperative patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: This multiple-center prospective cohort study was conducted in 13 medical centers in China. Patients with stage I, II, or IIIA NSCLC who had undergone radical resection and received conventional postoperative treatment according to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were recruited. The recruited patients were divided into a CM treatment group and a control group according to their wishes. Patients in the CM treatment group received continuous CM therapy for more than 6 months or until disease progression. Patients in the control group received CM therapy for less than 1 month. Follow-up was conducted over 3 years. The primary outcome was DFS, with recurrence/metastasis rates as a secondary outcome.

Results: Between May 2013 and August 2016, 503 patients were enrolled into the cohort; 266 were classified in the CM treatment group and 237 in the control group. Adjusting for covariates, high exposure to CM was associated with better DFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.417, 95% confidential interval (CI): 0.307-0.567)]. A longer duration of CM therapy (6-12 months, 12-18 months, >24 months) was associated with lower recurrence and metastasis rates (HR = 0.225, 0.119 and 0.083, respectively). In a subgroup exploratory analysis, CM therapy was also a protective factor of cancer recurrence and metastasis in both stage I-IIIA (HR=0.50, 95% CI: 0.37-0.67) and stage IIIA NSCLC postoperative patients (HR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.33-0.71), DFS was even longer among CM treatment group patients.

Conclusions: Longer duration of CM therapy could be considered a protective factor of cancer recurrence and metastasis. CM treatment is associated with improving survival outcomes of postoperative NSCLC patients in China. (Registration No. ChiCTR-OOC-14005398).

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