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. 2019 Jan-Dec:18:1534735418810799.
doi: 10.1177/1534735418810799. Epub 2018 Nov 27.

Aidi Injection, a Traditional Chinese Medicine Injection, Could Be Used as an Adjuvant Drug to Improve Quality of Life of Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Gang Xie  1 , Zhihua Cui  1 , Kai Peng  1 , Xiehai Zhou  1 , Quan Xia  2   3 , Dujuan Xu  1   2   3
Affiliations

Aidi Injection, a Traditional Chinese Medicine Injection, Could Be Used as an Adjuvant Drug to Improve Quality of Life of Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Gang Xie et al. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Clinical research has paid increasing attention to quality of life (QoL) in recent years, but the assessment of QoL is difficult, hampered by the subjectivity, complexity, and adherence of patients and physicians. According to previous studies, QoL in cancer patients is related to performance status (PS) and influenced by chemotherapy-related toxicity. Aidi injection, a traditional Chinese medicine injection, is used as an adjuvant drug to enhance effectiveness of chemotherapy. The study aims to investigate whether Aidi injection could improve QoL by improving PS and reducing toxicity caused by chemotherapy.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medicine University. Data of consecutive patients diagnosed with cancers between January 2014 and June 2017 were retrieved from the electronic medical record system. After a 1:1 propensity score match, patients were then divided into 2 groups based on the therapies used, that is, Aidi injection combined with chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone, and the PS, chemotherapy-related toxicity, and combined medication information were compared. The effect of different dosages of Aidi injection on patients was further explored.

Results: A total of 3200 patients were included in this study. Aidi injection combined with chemotherapy exhibited significantly benefit in PS ( P < .001, odds ratio [OR] 3.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.4-4.8) compared with chemotherapy alone after adjusting for the factors that affect PS. The improvement rate of PS in the Aidi group was significantly higher than in the control group across the stratification of gender, age, tumor type, TNM stage, body mass index, nodal metastasis, prior chemotherapy, chemotherapy regimens, other Chinese tradition medicines, and chemotherapy cycle. Meanwhile, Aidi injection used synchronously with chemotherapeutic drugs could decrease the incident rate of damage to liver and kidney function, myelosuppression, and gastrointestinal reactions caused by chemotherapy.

Conclusion: It was indicated that the integrative approach combining chemotherapy with Aidi injection, especially with the conventional dosage of Aidi injection, had significant benefit on QoL in cancer patients.

Keywords: Aidi injection; ECOG score; chemotherapy-related toxicity; performance status; propensity score match; quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mirror histograms (A) before propensity score matching and (B) after propensity score matching.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Standardized differences.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Stratified analysis.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Analysis of association rules of combined drug use of (A) Aidi users and (B) non-Aidi users.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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