Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoctions Improve Longevity Following Diagnosis with Stage IV Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Retrospective Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an ancient form of personalized medicine and may improve morbidity and mortality in patients with esophageal cancer. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the utility of TCM in the treatment of stage IV esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). METHODS: We collected the medical records of patients with stage IV SCC admitted to Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Linzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between July 2017 and June 2020. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to determine if the use of TCM improved patient prognosis. Moreover, cluster analysis was used to classify the patients according to TCM syndrome type and identify the most frequently used combinations of remedies. RESULTS: After that 402 patients were included in PSM, of which 196 (48.8%) were treated with traditional Chinese medicine. TCM prolonged the survival time of patients with stage IV esophageal SCC (P=0.084), and was an independently associated with prognosis as demonstrated by Cox multivariate regression analysis [risk ratio (RR) =0.543, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.390–0.755, P<0.001]. Association analysis revealed 75 cases (38.26%) had obstruction of phlegm and qi syndrome, 53 cases (27.04%) had phlegm and blood stasis syndrome, 38 cases (19.39%) had yang-qi deficiency syndrome, and 30 cases (15.31%) had heat retention and fluid consumption syndrome. CONCLUSION: Treatment with TCM derived therapies may increase the survival time of patients with stage IV esophageal SCC. Since these patients were diagnosed with different TCM syndromes, individualized TCM therapy is essential for improving symptoms and survival.