Frontiers in Oncology (Apr 2022)

Immortal Time Bias-Corrected Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (C-EVID): A Prospective Cohort Study

  • Xing Zhang,
  • Qiujun Guo,
  • Conghuang Li,
  • Rui Liu,
  • Tao Xu,
  • Zhichao Jin,
  • Yupeng Xi,
  • Yinggang Qin,
  • Weidong Li,
  • Shuntai Chen,
  • Ling Xu,
  • Lizhu Lin,
  • Kang Shao,
  • Shenyu Wang,
  • Ying Xie,
  • Hong Sun,
  • Ping Li,
  • Xiangyang Chu,
  • Kequn Chai,
  • Qijin Shu,
  • Yanqing Liu,
  • Yue Zhang,
  • Jiaqi Hu,
  • Bolun Shi,
  • Xiwen Zhang,
  • Zhenhua Zhang,
  • Juling Jiang,
  • Shulin He,
  • Jie He,
  • Mingxi Sun,
  • Ying Zhang,
  • Meiying Zhang,
  • Honggang Zheng,
  • Wei Hou,
  • Baojin Hua

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.845613
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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BackgroundRelatively little is known about the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsIn this nationwide, multicenter, prospective, cohort study, eligible patients aged 18-75 years with radical resection, and histologically confirmed stage II-IIIA NSCLC were enrolled. All patients received 4 cycles of standard adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients who received Chinese herbal decoction and (or) oral Chinese patent medicine for a cumulative period of not less than 6 months were defined as TCM group, otherwise they were considered as control group. The primary endpoint was DFS calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. A time-dependent Cox proportional hazards model was used to correct immortal time bias. The secondary endpoints included DFS in patients of different characteristics, and safety analyses. This study was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1800015776).ResultsA total of 507 patients were included (230 patients in the TCM group; 277 patients in the control group). The median follow-up was 32.1 months. 101 (44%) in the TCM group and 186 (67%) in the control group had disease relapse. The median DFS was not reached in the TCM group and was 19.4 months (95% CI, 14.2 to 24.6) in the control group. The adjusted time-dependent HR was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.47 to 0.78), equalling to a 39% reduction in the risk of disease recurrence with TCM. the number needed to treat to prevent one patient from relapsing was 4.29 (95% CI, 3.15 to 6.73) at 5 years. Similar results were observed in most of subgroups. Patients had a significant improvement in white blood cell decrease, nausea, decreased appetite, diarrhea, pain, and fatigue in the TCM group.ConclusionTCM may improves DFS and has a better tolerability profile in patients with stage II-IIIA NSCLC receiving standard chemotherapy after complete resection compared with those receiving standard chemotherapy alone. Further studies are warranted.

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