Medication Rules of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Consolidation Period of Breast Cancer Based on Association Rules Mining

Abstract

Objective: To explore the association rules between medicines, core combinations and new prescriptions, and to analyze the medication rules of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in consolidation period of breast cancer based on data mining of medical records of TCM treatment in consolidation period of breast cancer in outpatient clinic of Hunan University of TCM in recent 10 years. Method: Use Python 3.7 software to select association rule algorithm with the minimum support degree greater than 60% and the minimum confidence greater than 0.9 to conduct data mining of the collected medical records. Results: A total of 9739 medical records and 178 Chinese herbal medicines were selected for data mining. The TCMs with higher frequency are atractylodes macrocephala, astragalus membranaceus, poria cocos, codonopsis pilosula, coix seed, hedyotis diffusa and scutellaria barbata. The top five bi-linked medicines in confidence are scutellaria barbata with atractylodes macrocephala, hedyotis diffusa with atractylodes macrocephala, liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with atractylodes macrocephala, coii with atractylodes macrocephala, and poria cocos with atractylodes macrocephala. The top five triple-linked medicines in confidence are liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with scutellaria barbata with atractylodes macrocephala, poria cocos with coix seed with atractylodes macrocephala, liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with coix seed with atractylodes macrocephala, and poria cocos with scutellaria barbata with atractylodes macrocephala. The top five quadr-linked medicine in confidence are poria cocos with liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with coix seed with atractylodes macrocephala, poria cocos with liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with scutellaria barbata with atractylodes macrocephala, hedyotis diffusa with poria cocos with liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with atractylodes macrocephala, codonopsis pilosula with poria cocos with liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with astragalus membranaceus, and codonopsis pilosula with atractylodes macrocephala with liquor-saturated ligustrum lucidum with astragalus membranaceus. Conclusion: The main pathogenesis of consolidation period of breast cancer is Qi deficiency and toxin stagnation, and the most important treatment is enriching Qi and detoxify, strengthening the spleen and tonifying the kidney.