Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine Therapy on Overall and Cancer Related Mortality in Patients With Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in Taiwan

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a head and neck cancer involving epithelial squamous-cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx that mainly occurs in individuals from East and Southeast Asia. We investigated whether Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) as a complementary therapy offers benefits to these patients. We retrospectively evaluated the Taiwan Cancer Registry (Long Form) database for patients with advanced NPC, using or not using CHM, between 2007-2013. Cox proportional-hazard model and Kaplan‒Meier survival analyses were applied for patient survival. CHM-users showed a lower overall and cancer-related mortality risk than non-users. For advanced NPC patients, the overall mortality risk was 0.799-fold for CHM-users, after controlling for age, gender, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score (Cancer stages 3 + 4: adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.799, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.676-0.943, p = 0.008). CHM-users also showed a lower cancer-related mortality risk than non-users (aHR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.53-0.96, p = 0.0273). Association rule analysis showed that CHM pairs were Ban-Zhi-Lian (BZL; Scutellaria barbata D.Don) and For single herbs, Bai-Hua-She-She-Cao (Herba Hedyotis Diffusae; Scleromitrion diffusum (Willd.) R.J.Wang (syn. Hedyotis diffusa Willd.) and Mai-Men-Dong (MMD; Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl.), and Gan-Lu-Yin (GLY) and BHSSC. Network analysis revealed that BHSSC was the core CHM, and BZL, GLY, and Xin-Yi-Qing-Fei-Tang (XYQFT) were important CHMs in cluster 1. In cluster 2, ShengDH, MMD, Xuan-Shen (XS; Scrophularia ningpoensis Hensl.), and Gua-Lou-Gen (GLG; Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim.) were important CHMs. Thus, as a complementary therapy, CHM, and particularly the 8 CHMs identified, are important for the treatment of advanced NPC patients.