The Quintessence of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Syndrome and Its Distribution among Advanced Cancer Patients with Constipation

Table 1

Patient demographic data.

	Deficiency (𝑛=127)	Excess (𝑛=7)	Complex (𝑛=91)	𝑃 value
Gender ratio male: female	1 : 0.84	1 : 0.75	1 : 0.98	0.837
Age in years (mean ± SD)	75.82±11.21	67.14±9.17	72.57±12.85	0.039
PPS (0–100) (mean ± SD)	55.69±16.18	71.67±17.22	60.23±15.49	0.016
Primary cancer	Number of patients (% within group)
Lung	38 (29.9%)	3 (42.9%)	24 (26.4%)	0.898
Colorectal	11 (8.7%)	1 (14.3%)	16 (17.6%)
Hepatobiliary	16 (12.6%)	1 (14.3%)	9 (9.9%)
Prostate	9 (7.1%)	0 (0%)	6 (6.6%)
Stomach	11 (8.7%)	0 (0%)	3 (3.3%)
Breast	7 (5.5%)	0 (0%)	5 (5.5%)
Gynaecological	7 (5.5%)	0 (0%)	3 (3.3%)
Pancreas	3 (2.4%)	0 (0%)	6 (6.6%)
Urinary system	4 (3.1%)	1 (14.3%)	4 (4.4%)
Nasopharyngeal	3 (2.4%)	0 (0%)	1 (1.1%)
Thyroid	3 (2.4%)	0 (0%)	1 (1.1%)
Haematological	3 (2.4%)	0 (0%)	1 (1.1%)
Oesophagus	2 (1.6%)	0 (0%)	1 (1.1%)
Brain	2 (1.6%)	0 (0%)	1 (1.1%)
Head and neck	2 (1.6%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Others	3 (2.4%)	0 (0%)	4 (4.4%)
Unknown/missing data	3 (2.4%)	1 (14.3%)	6 (6.6%)
Biochemical parameters (mean ± SD)
Haemoglobin mg/dL	10.20±2.02	11.63±1.33	11.00±1.94	0.008
Urea mmol/L	5.90±3.49	5.15±3.54	7.01±5.02	0.140
Creatinine μmol/L	90.71±47.19	70.50±58.06	97.10±62.50	0.425
Alkaline phosphatase IU/L	200.59±256.56	187.67±151.49	234.82±275.38	0.711
Alanine aminotransferase U/L	36.08±69.48	40.50±15.98	88.64±449.30	0.445
Serum calcium mmol/L	2.26±0.27	2.15±0.25	2.22±0.17	0.243
Serum albumin mg/L	26.74±6.27	23.00	27.44±6.46	0.712

Deficiency: deficient pattern; excess: excessive pattern; complex: deficiency-excess complex.
PPS: palliative performance scale.
Biochemical parameters were determined for those patients with blood tests within three months.