Right- and left-sided colorectal cancers respond differently to traditional Chinese medicine

AIM To explore the differences in the responses of left-sided colorectal cancer (LSCRC) and right-sided colon cancer (RSCC) to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). METHODS Patients with postoperative stage I-III colorectal cancer (CRC) were enrolled and divided into the LSCRC with or without TCM and RSCC with or without TCM groups depending on the primary tumor side and TCM administration. Patients in the TCM group were given TCM for at least 6 mo. Our research adopted disease-free survival (DFS) as the primary endpoint. We applied a Cox proportional hazards regression model for the multivariate factor analysis using Stata 12.0 and SPSS 22.0 software for data analysis. RESULTS Of the 817 patients included in our study, 617 had LSCRC (TCM group, n = 404; Non-TCM group, n = 213), and 200 had RSCC (TCM group, n = 132; Non-TCM group, n = 68). The 6-year DFS for patients with LSCRC was 56.95% in the TCM group and 41.50% in the Non-TCM group (P = 0.000). For patients with RSCC, the 6-year DFS was 52.92% in the TCM group and 37.19% in the Non-TCM group (P = 0.003). Differences between LSCRC and RSCC were not statistically significant regardless of TCM ingestion. CONCLUSION Patients with either LSCRC or RSCC and who took TCM experienced longer DFS; furthermore, patients with RSCC benefited more from TCM in DFS.