Effects of Integrated Chinese Traditional Medicine and Conventional Western Medicine on the Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine has been widely used, in conjunction with conventional Western medicine, in clinical practice around the world to treat breast cancer. The study systematically reviewed and summarized the quality of life of breast cancer patients treated with integrated treatment method vs. conventional Western medicine.

Methods: Eight databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biology Medicine Disc, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, and Wanfang Data knowledge service platform were searched in this study. The retrieval period was set from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2020.

Results: Twenty-two high-quality publications were included in this study. The total sample size was 1689 patients including 844 in the intervention group receiving traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional Western medicine and 845 patients in the control group receiving conventional Western medicine only. Compared with the single-used conventional Western medicine treatment, an integrated approach to treat breast cancer can increase quality of life measured by rating scales (SMD = 1.29, 95% CI (1.07, 1.52) and =0.01) and ranking scales (RR = 1.53, 95% CI (1.39 1.68) and =0.02) and also decrease adverse reactions measured by rating scales ( = 10.89, < 0.05; Group 1:  = 9.0%, =0.258, SMD = 1.03; and Group 2:  = 31.6%, =0.199, SMD = 1.56). For further analysis, chemotherapy with epirubicin exhibited higher quality of life than the chemotherapy without epirubicin among breast cancer patients [ = 19.80, < 0.05; Group 1:  = 62.4%, =0.070, SMD = 1.61; and Group 2:  = 9.0%, =0.359, SMD = 1.04]. Despite the heterogeneity, which was due to a portion of relative low-quality literature or other factors, the results were satisfactory. In terms of secondary results, the patients with lower tumor markers (CEA and CA153) had better efficiency in quality of life with a statistically significant difference (SMD = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.10,1.67) for rating scales. In addition, secondary results related to high incidence of gastrointestinal adverse reactions (RR = 1.33, 95% CI (1.20, 1.48)) and the traditional Chinese medicine syndrome (RR = 1.50, 95% CI (1.28, 1.80))showed lower quality of life in the intervention group than the control group for ranking scales.

Conclusion: Traditional Chinese medicine, when used in conjunction with the conventional Western medicine, could be an effective way in improving the quality of life and alleviating incidence of associated adverse symptoms such as gastrointestinal adverse reactions, value of tumor markers, and the incidence of traditional Chinese medicine syndrome. Further investigation of larger and methodologically sound trials with longer follow-up periods and appropriate comparison groups is needed.