Clinical Study of 32 Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine Combined with Chemotherapy.

ABSTRACT

Objective: Our aim was to investigate the effect of the clinical application of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Methods: The study participants were divided into 2 groups the combined treatment group, comprised of 32 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer admitted to Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital in China between June 2021 and June 2022 who received TCM combined with chemotherapy; and the control group 32 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer admitted to Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital in China between June 2021 and June 2022 who received chemotherapy alone. The TCM symptom score, TCM clinical efficacy, Western medicine clinical efficacy, patient quality of life (QoL) and incidence of adverse events (AEs) were compared in the 2 groups. Results: Prior to treatment, there was no significant difference in the patients' general clinical condition in the 2 groups (P > .05); after treatment, the TCM symptom score in the combined treatment group (16.62±2.77) was better than in the control group (21.44±2.53), with a P < .05. The TCM and Western medicine clinical efficacy was better than in the control group, with a P < .05; QoL score was higher than in the control group, P < .05; the incidence of AEs (3.12%) was lower than in the control group (28.12%); P < .05. Conclusion: In the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the application of TCM combined with chemotherapy can achieve good therapeutic results, improve the patients' prognosis, effectively reduce the occurrence of AEs and continuously restore patients' QoL.