Association between Traditional Chinese Medicine Use and Liver Cancer in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis: A Population-based Study

Background The global incidence and mortality of liver diseases is increasing. One of the major risk factors for liver cancer is the presence of liver cirrhosis. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) are being sought as alternative medicines for liver diseases. This study evaluated the association between traditional Chinese herbal medicine and liver cancer in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods The analytical data were collected from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Databases (LHID2005). Samples included patients with liver cirrhosis who sought Traditional Chinese medicine from 2001-2004. Diagnosis of liver cancer was from 2004-2010 using the ICD 9 codes 155 and A code A095. The Chi-square (χ2) test was used to test for associations while multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the association between CM and liver cancer in cirrhotic patients. All statistics were analyzed using the SAS 9.2 software (Cary, NC, USA). Differences were considered significant at p-value< 0.05. Results From 2001-2004, a total of 8 145 individuals were identified with liver cirrhosis; 5 469 were men and 2 676 were women. Among the cirrhotic patients who sought TCM, 25.3% of men and 20.41% of women were identified with liver cancer. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a significant odds ratio (OR) of 0.880 (95% CI 0.787-0.984) for liver cancer. However, when analyzed by gender, significant odds existed only in men (OR: 0.872, 95% CI 0.764-0.955). Conclusion There was a significant association between traditional Chinese medicine and liver cancer in men with cirrhosis.