Traditional Chinese medicine attenuates hospitalization and mortality risks in diabetic patients with carcinoma in Taiwan.

Background: Diabetic patients are at high risk of developing cancer. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has become increasingly popular as an adjuvant treatment for patients with chronic diseases, and some studies have identified its beneficial effect in diabetic patients with cancer. The purpoes of this study was to outline the potential of TCM to attenuate hospitalization and mortality rates in diabetic patients with carcinoma  (CIS).

Methods: A total of 6,987 diabetic subjects with CIS under TCM therapy were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, along with 38,800 of 1:1 sex-, age-, and index year-matched controls without TCM therapy. Cox proportional hazard analysis was conducted to compare hospitalization and mortality rates during an average of 15 years of follow-up.

Results: A total of 3,999/1,393 enrolled-subjects (28.62%/9.97%) had hospitalization/mortality, including 1,777/661 in the TCM group (25.43%/9.46%) and 2,222/732 in the control group (31.80%/10.48%). Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed a lower rate of hospitalization and mortality for subjects in the TCM group (adjusted HR=0.536; 95% CI=0.367-0.780, <0.001; adjusted HR=0.783; 95% CI=0.574-0.974,  = 0.022). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the cumulative risk of hospitalization and mortality in the case and control groups was significantly different (log rank, <0.001 and  = 0.011, respectively).

Conclusions: Diabetic patients with CIS under TCM therapy were associated with lower hospitalization and mortality rates compared to those without TCM therapy. Thus, TCM application may reduce the burden of national medical resources.