The Efficacy of Long-Term Chinese Herbal Medicine Use on Lung Cancer Survival Time: A Retrospective Two-Center Cohort Study with Propensity Score Matching

OBJECTIVE: To explore the efficacy of long-term use of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on survival time of lung cancer. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on lung cancer patients. A propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the covariates. Progression-free survival (PFS) was the primary endpoint and overall survival (OS) was the secondary endpoint. Patients who received CHM therapy from the initial date of diagnosis of lung cancer were included in the CHM group. Patients who were not treated with CHM during the same interval were categorized in the control group. A Cox regression model was used to explore the prognostic factors related to lung cancer. Hazard ratios of different subgroups were also analyzed. CONCLUSION: which can be flexibly applied in the course of lung cancer treatment, not only has a positive influence on the progression-free survival time of lung cancer patients, but also reduces the risk of recurrence and metastasis of lung cancer.