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. 2019 Jan-Dec:18:1534735419834353.
doi: 10.1177/1534735419834353.

Conventional Western Treatment Associated With Chinese Herbal Medicine Ameliorates the Incidence of Head and Neck Cancer Among Patients With Esophageal Cancer

Chia-Chen Chang  1 , Kuo-Wei Bi  2 , Hung-Jen Lin  1   3 , Yuan-Chih Su  1   3 , Wen-Ling Wang  1   3 , Chen-Yuan Lin  1   3 , Chun-Fu Ting  1   3 , Mao-Feng Sun  1   3 , Sheng-Teng Huang  1   3   4
Affiliations

Conventional Western Treatment Associated With Chinese Herbal Medicine Ameliorates the Incidence of Head and Neck Cancer Among Patients With Esophageal Cancer

Chia-Chen Chang et al. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan-Dec.

Erratum in

  • Erratum.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] Integr Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan-Dec;18:1534735419860930. doi: 10.1177/1534735419860930. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019. PMID: 31248286 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Background: Because of advances in medical treatment, the survival of cancer patients is prolonged. In line with the prolonged survival time of cancer the incidence of second primary cancer has increased. There is currently no effective way to prevent the occurrence of secondary primary cancer (SPC).

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate whether Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) is correlated with reduced occurrence of second primary cancer (SPC) of head and neck (H&N) in patients with esophageal cancer (EC).

Method: We identified 15,546 patients who were diagnosed with esophageal cancer between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2010. The patients with H&N cancer before receiving CHM were excluded. After the selection and matching process, both CHM and non-CHM cohorts each contained 850 individuals. We compared the cumulative incidence of SPC of H&N with or without CHM treatment in patients with EC by the Kaplan-Meier method. NodeXL is used to run a network analysis of CHM to examine the association between herbs and formulas.

Results: Compared with non-CHM users, CHM-users showed a reduced incidence rate of SPC of H&N among the patients with EC. Reduced cumulative incidence of SPC of H&N among patients with EC was noted in the CHM cohort compared to the non-CHM cohort. The most commonly used single herbs and formulas were associated with reducing SPC occurrence.

Conclusion: We propose that CHM as an adjuvant therapy may prevent the occurrence of SPC of H&N in patients with EC.

Keywords: Chinese herbal medicine; cohort study; esophageal cancer; head and neck cancer; secondary primary cancers.

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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.
Flow chart of CHM and non-CHM cases from Registry for Catastrophic Illness Patient Database (RCIPD) in Taiwan during 2000-2010. Abbreviations: CHM, Chinese herbal medicine; TCM, traditional Chinese medicine; PS, propensity score.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Kaplan-Meier analysis of cumulative incidence of head and neck cancer between esophageal cancer patients with and without Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) use. The cumulative incidence of head and neck cancer was significantly higher among non-CHM users as compared with CHM users in the patients with esophageal cancer (log-rank test, P = .02).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Network analyses of the most frequently used 50 herb and formula combinations for all patients with esophageal cancer. The size of the spot indicates the frequency of Chinese herbal product prescribed, and the width of the line indicates the frequency of association between 2 Chinese herbal products.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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