Abstract
We conducted a National Health Insurance Research Database-based Taiwanese nationwide population-based cohort study to evaluate whether Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) treatment decreased the incidence of chronic hepatitis in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. A total of 81171 patients were diagnosed with breast cancer within the defined study period. After randomly equal matching, data from 13856 patients were analyzed. Hazard ratios of incidence rate of chronic hepatitis were used to determine the influence and therapeutic potential of CHM in patients with breast cancer. The patients with breast cancer receiving CHM treatment exhibited a significantly decreased incidence rate of chronic hepatitis even across the stratification of age, CCI score, and treatments. The cumulative incidence of chronic hepatitis for a period of seven years after initial breast cancer diagnosis was also reduced in the patients receiving CHM treatment. The ten most commonly used single herbs and formulas were effective in protecting liver function in patients with breast cancer, where Hedyotis diffusa and Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San were the most commonly used herbal agents. In conclusion, our study provided information that western medicine therapy combined with CHM as an adjuvant modality may have a significant impact on liver protection in patients with breast cancer.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common and the second most lifethreatening cancer in women
Of the 8918 Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) users and 12152 non-CHM users diagnosed with breast cancer from 1997 to 2010, after frequency matching both groups for age, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score, treatments, and initial diagnosis year of breast cancer, each group contained 6,928 patients
We found that the CHM users had the lower tendency to develop chronic hepatitis than those of non-CHM users; this lacks statistical significance as a result of small sample size of the other two subgroups (CCI scores 1 and ≥2) (Table 2)
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common and the second most lifethreatening cancer in women. Conventional breast cancer treatments include surgery, radiation, and medication. Medical therapies (chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and target therapy) are adopted to improve the disease-free ratio, overall survival ratio, and patients’ quality of life. Several adverse effects induced by medical treatments in patients with breast cancer include fatigue, phlebitis, alopecia, nausea, vomiting, mucositis, myelosuppression, cardiac toxicity, renal toxicity, and hepatotoxicity. Those adverse effects may affect up to 60% of patients and limit the application and efficacy of medical therapy [1]. Resolving adverse effects is an important issue in clinical practice
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
