Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Liver Protection and Chemotherapy Completion among Cancer Patients

Table 3

Characteristics by the case-control status (N = 184).

	Case (n = 42)	Control (n = 142)	t/𝜒^2	P
Age	Mean = 58.43; SD = 12.28	Mean = 55.17; SD = 10.12	1.57	.12
Sex			2.28	.09
Male	14 (33.3%)	66 (46.5%)
Female	28 (66.7%)	76 (53.5%)
Cancer diagnosis			43.47	<.0001
Breast cancer	21 (14.8%)	19 (45.2%)
Gastrointestinal cancer	88 (62.0%)	8 (19.0%)
Lung cancer	15 (10.6%)	2 (4.8%)
Lip, oral cavity, pharynx and throat cancer	2 (1.4%)	4 (9.5%)
Genital and urological cancer	7 (4.9%)	3 (7.1%)
Lymph and blood system cancer	9 (6.3%)	3 (7.1%)
Bone and connective tissue cancer	0 (0.0%)	1 (2.4%)
Others	0 (0.0%)	2 (4.8%)
Cancer stages			19.15	<.001
I	2 (1.4%)	7 (16.7%)
II	21 (14.8%)	9 (21.4%)
III	51 (35.9%)	14 (33.3%)
IV	68 (47.9%)	12 (28.6%)
Site of radiotherapy			5.11	.08
No	58 (40.8%)	23 (54.8%)
Abdomen	45 (31.7%)	6 (14.3%)
Non-abdomen	39 (27.5%)	13 (31.0%)
Hepatotoxicity of the chemotherapeutic drugs			0.13	.72
Yes	41 (97.6%)	137 (96.5%)
No	1 (2.4%)	5 (3.5%)

t and 𝜒² are respective statistical values from Student's; t-test and chi-squared test; the P-value is the probability assuming that null hypothesis is true (two-tailed test); the significance level was set to P < .05. The chemotherapeutic drugs used in this study were Ara-C, bleomycin, carboplatin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, dacarbazine, doxorubicin, etoposide, fluorouracil, formoxol, gemcitabine, ifosfamide, mitoxantrone, methotrexate, mitomycin C, oxaliplatin, taxol and taxotere (with potential hepatotoxicity); arimidex, CPT-11, faslodex, herceptin, navelbine, tamoxifen, UFUR and vinblastine (without hepatotoxicity).