Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2017; 23(42): 7618-7625
Published online Nov 14, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i42.7618
Right- and left-sided colorectal cancers respond differently to traditional Chinese medicine
Shan-Shan Liu, Qi Shi, Hong-Jia Li, Wei Yang, Su-Su Han, Shao-Qi Zong, Wen Li, Feng-Gang Hou
Shan-Shan Liu, Qi Shi, Hong-Jia Li, Wei Yang, Su-Su Han, Shao-Qi Zong, Wen Li, Feng-Gang Hou, Oncology Department of Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200071, China
Author contributions: Liu SS and Hou FG designed the research; all authors involved in patients recruitment and data collecting; Liu SS analyzed the data and edited manuscript.
Supported by the Scientific Research Foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Shanghai Health Bureau, No. 2014LZ079A; the Scientific Research Plan Project of the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee, No. 14401930800; the Program of Shanghai Municipal Technology and Education Commission, No. 16401970500.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by IRB of Shuguang Hospital affiliated with Shanghai University of TCM.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data were available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Feng-Gang Hou, PhD, Oncology Department of Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 274 Zhijiang Road, Shanghai 200071, China. 1127@szy.sh.cn
Telephone: +86-21-56639828 Fax: +86-21-56639484
Received: July 3, 2017
Peer-review started: July 5, 2017
First decision: August 30, 2017
Revised: September 12, 2017
Accepted: September 26, 2017
Article in press: September 26, 2017
Published online: November 14, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To explore the differences in the responses of left-sided colorectal cancer (LSCRC) and right-sided colon cancer (RSCC) to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

METHODS

Patients with postoperative stage I-III colorectal cancer (CRC) were enrolled and divided into the LSCRC with or without TCM and RSCC with or without TCM groups depending on the primary tumor side and TCM administration. Patients in the TCM group were given TCM for at least 6 mo. Our research adopted disease-free survival (DFS) as the primary endpoint. We applied a Cox proportional hazards regression model for the multivariate factor analysis using Stata 12.0 and SPSS 22.0 software for data analysis.

RESULTS

Of the 817 patients included in our study, 617 had LSCRC (TCM group, n = 404; Non-TCM group, n = 213), and 200 had RSCC (TCM group, n = 132; Non-TCM group, n = 68). The 6-year DFS for patients with LSCRC was 56.95% in the TCM group and 41.50% in the Non-TCM group (P = 0.000). For patients with RSCC, the 6-year DFS was 52.92% in the TCM group and 37.19% in the Non-TCM group (P = 0.003). Differences between LSCRC and RSCC were not statistically significant regardless of TCM ingestion.

CONCLUSION

Patients with either LSCRC or RSCC and who took TCM experienced longer DFS; furthermore, patients with RSCC benefited more from TCM in DFS.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Left-sided, Right-sided, Traditional Chinese medicine, Disease-free survival

Core tip: In this prospective, observational, multicenter, cohort study, we compared disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with postoperative stage I-III left- and right-sided colorectal cancers who were stratified by ingestion of TCM. The data analysis confirmed that TCM effectively prolonged DFS of patients with stage II-III on both sides, especially individuals with stage III right-sided colon cancer.