Traditional Chinese Medicine Enhances Survival in Cancer Patients on Immunotherapy or Chemotherapy
7 affiliations
- 1Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, College of Biomedical Sciences, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2Department of Chinese Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 3School of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 4School of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 5Division of Hematology and Oncology Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 6Secretariat, Chinese Medical Advancement Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan
- 7Department of Pharmacy Practice, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with Western medical treatments enhances cancer patients’ survival rates and quality of life. However, there is a lack of large-scale studies on the integration of TCM with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or chemotherapy in cancer treatment. This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research database and Taiwan Cancer Registry, including 2,512 patients treated with ICIs and 130,010 with chemotherapy between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021. Patients receiving TCM were classified as TCM users, while those who did not were nonusers. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for demographics and comorbidities. Among ICI-treated patients, TCM users (n=720) had lower mortality rates than nonusers (n=1,792), with an incidence of 45.84 vs. 83.72 per 100 person-years (adjusted HR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.51–0.66). Similarly, in chemotherapy-treated patients, TCM users (n=51,292) had reduced mortality (11.54 vs. 24.86 per 100 person-years; adjusted HR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.57–0.60). These associations remained consistent across subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Commonly used TCM herbs included Hedyotis diffusa Willd (Bai Hua She She Cao), Scutellaria barbata (Ban Zhi Lian), and Astragali Radix (Huang Qi). These findings suggest that TCM use alongside ICIs or chemotherapy is associated with lower mortality, even after adjusting for confounders. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results and explore underlying mechanisms, advancing integrative cancer care.
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BibTeX
@article{hsieh2026traditional,
title = {{Traditional Chinese Medicine Enhances Survival in Cancer Patients on Immunotherapy or Chemotherapy}},
author = {Tsung-Yun Hsieh and Sheng-Yin To and Cho-Hao Lee and Sunny Jui-Shan Lin and Li-Ting Kao},
journal = {Integrative Cancer Therapies},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1177/15347354261494126},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/15347354261494126},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Traditional Chinese Medicine Enhances Survival in Cancer Patients on Immunotherapy or Chemotherapy
AU - Tsung-Yun Hsieh
AU - Sheng-Yin To
AU - Cho-Hao Lee
AU - Sunny Jui-Shan Lin
AU - Li-Ting Kao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Integrative Cancer Therapies
DO - 10.1177/15347354261494126
UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/15347354261494126
AB - Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with Western medical treatments enhances cancer patients’ survival rates and quality of life. However, there is a lack of large-scale studies on the integration of TCM with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or chemotherapy in cancer treatment. This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research database and Taiwan Cancer Registry, including 2,512 patients treated with ICIs and 130,010 with chemotherapy between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021. Patients receiving TCM were classified as TCM users, while those who did not were nonusers. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for demographics and comorbidities. Among ICI-treated patients, TCM users (n=720) had lower mortality rates than nonusers (n=1,792), with an incidence of 45.84 vs. 83.72 per 100 person-years (adjusted HR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.51–0.66). Similarly, in chemotherapy-treated patients, TCM users (n=51,292) had reduced mortality (11.54 vs. 24.86 per 100 person-years; adjusted HR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.57–0.60). These associations remained consistent across subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Commonly used TCM herbs included Hedyotis diffusa Willd (Bai Hua She She Cao), Scutellaria barbata (Ban Zhi Lian), and Astragali Radix (Huang Qi). These findings suggest that TCM use alongside ICIs or chemotherapy is associated with lower mortality, even after adjusting for confounders. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results and explore underlying mechanisms, advancing integrative cancer care.
SN - 1534-7354
SN - 1552-695X
ER -