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

Table 5

Crude and net effect of TCM use on AST.

	Estimate	95% CI		Z	P
Crude effect
TCM cases	2.48	−3.21	8.19	0.85	.39
During chemotherapy	4.42	2.01	6.82	3.60	<.001
After chemotherapy	1.78	−0.46	4.04	1.56	.11
Case × During	−6.90	−12.30	−1.50	−2.51	.01
Case × After	−3.45	−10.08	3.17	−1.02	.30
Net effect
TCM cases	3.61	−2.47	9.70	1.16	.24
During chemotherapy	4.43	2.01	6.85	3.59	.0003
After chemotherapy	1.81	−0.44	4.05	1.60	.11
Case × During	−6.9	−12.30	−1.50	−2.51	.01
Case × After	−3.48	−10.08	3.11	−1.03	.30

The reference groups were controls for case–control status and before chemotherapy for time.
Crude effect was unadjusted results. Net effect was results adjusted for age, sex, cancer stage, site of radiotherapy, cancer diagnosis and potential hepatotoxicity of the chemotherapeutic drugs.
Z is the statistical value from GEE; the P value is the probability assuming that the null hypothesis is true (two-tailed test); the significance level was set to P < .05; “×" indicates an interaction.