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BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research article

Prescription frequency and patterns of Chinese herbal medicine for liver cancer patients in Taiwan: a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Insurance Research Database

Authors: Chin-Tsung Ting, Chian-Jue Kuo, Hsiao-Yun Hu, Ya-Ling Lee, Tung-Hu Tsai

Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is frequently provided to HCC patients. The aim of this study was to understand the prescription frequency and patterns of CHM for HCC patients by analyzing the claims data from the National Health Insurance (NHI) in Taiwan.

Methods

We identified 73918 newly diagnosed HCC subjects from the database of Registry for Catastrophic Illness during 2002 to 2009 and to analyze the frequency and pattern of corresponding CHM prescriptions for HCC patients.

Results

There were a total of 685,079 single Chinese herbal prescriptions and 553,952 Chinese herbal formula prescriptions used for 17,373 HCC subjects before 2 years of HCC diagnosis. Among the 13,093 HCC subjects who used CHMs after HCC diagnosis, there were 462,786 single Chinese herbal prescriptions and 300,153 Chinese herbal formula prescriptions were counted. By adjusting with person-year and ratio of standardized incidence rate, the top ten prescribed single herbal drugs and Chinese herbal formulas for HCC patients were described in our study. Among them, we concluded that, Oldenlandia diffusa (Chinese herbal name: Bai-Hua-She-She-Cao), Radix et Rhizoma Rhei (Da Huang) and the herbal preparation of Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang and Gan-Lu-Yin, were the most obviously increased and important CHMs been used for HCC patients.

Conclusion

We established an accurate and validated method for the actual frequency and patterns of CHM use in treating HCC in Taiwan. We propose that these breakthrough findings may have important implications for HCC therapy, clinical trials and modernization of CHM.
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Metadata
Title
Prescription frequency and patterns of Chinese herbal medicine for liver cancer patients in Taiwan: a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Insurance Research Database
Authors
Chin-Tsung Ting
Chian-Jue Kuo
Hsiao-Yun Hu
Ya-Ling Lee
Tung-Hu Tsai
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 2662-7671
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-017-1628-0

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