Impact of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Prognosis of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: In a previous study, we found that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) alleviated the clinical symptoms and improved the quality of life (QoL) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Objectives: A cohort was continuously followed up to determine the impact of the TCM adjuvant therapies on the prognosis of HCC after conventional treatments. Methods: We did a retrospective monocentric cohort study including 175 eligible patients. The participants who received TCM adjuvant therapies were termed as TCM group. For the purpose of stratification analysis, the patients who received TCM adjuvant therapies over 3 months per year were further classified into the high frequency group, while the rest of the TCM users were classified into the low frequency group. Non-users were recorded as the control group. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS) and the secondary outcome was the mean progression-free survival (mPFS) primarily introduced in this study, referring to the time from initial diagnosis to the latest progression over the number of disease progressions. Analyses used Cox proportional hazards and Kaplan-Meier (K-M) methods, adjusted for stratification factors. Results: Until June 30, 2021, 56 patients survived, 21 patients were lost to follow-up, and 98 patients died from the disease. Each disease progression of every individual was recorded, and most of the PFS was within 1 year. The baseline data of the allocated groups were balanced, the result revealed that TCM adjuvant therapies might have little influence on OS ( P = .129). However, the 1, 3, and 5-year progression-free survival rates of the patients in TCM and control group were 68.75%, 37.50%; 25.00%, 8.33% and 8.33%, 2.08%, respectively, indicating TCM use significantly extended the mPFS, and decreased the risk of disease progression by a factor of 0.676 ( P = .006). In the patients with BCLC stage B HCC, compared with controls, a 37-month median OS advantage in the high frequency group was noted ( P = .045); and the high frequency of TCM use significantly suppressed disease progression ( P = .001). Conclusions: The present study revealed that TCM adjuvant therapies could postpone disease progression in HCC. Furthermore, using TCM over 3 months per year might extend OS in patients with intermediate HCC.