Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine Adjuvant Therapy on the Survival of Patients with Primary Liver Cancer

AIM: This study aims to evaluate whether adjuvant traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can improve the survival of patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). METHODS: A total of 1,859 patients with PLC at Beijing Ditan Hospital between August 2008 and September 2017 were included. The patients were divided into TCM and control groups according to whether the patients took TCM for ≥3 months. There were 1,111 patients in the TCM group and 748 in the control group. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to analyze the factors affecting the 3-year survival of patients with PLC. To reduce selection bias, 1 : 1 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed between the two groups. The overall survival outcomes were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier (K–M) survival curve, and the log-rank test was used to compare the differences in survival curves. RESULTS: After multivariate Cox regression analysis, TCM was an independent favorable factor for the 3-year survival of patients with PLC (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 0.359, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.292–0.441, P < 0.001). Before and after PSM, the 3-year overall survival rates were 33.3% and 54% in the control group and 79.7% and 69.7% in the TCM group, respectively. The 3-year mortality risk in the TCM group was lower than that in the control group for different PLC subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: TCM adjuvant therapy increased the 3-year overall survival rate of patients with PLC.