How much can herbal medicine improve survival in pancreatic cancer? — Nationwide Taiwan data showing an effect that grows the longer you take it

In pancreatic cancer too, herbal medicine is beneficial. Today we sum up this topic with a single large-scale nationwide cohort study from Taiwan.

Across the papers in our ongoing "Cancer" series, the type of cancer studied differs, yet they all arrive at the same conclusion. The pancreatic cancer study introduced here likewise shows the same result. Pancreatic cancer patients who added herbal medicine to standard treatment had a markedly lower risk of death than patients who did not take herbal medicine. In particular, the longer the herbal medicine was taken, the greater the effect became.

How much can herbal medicine help survival in pancreatic cancer?

Pancreatic cancer is regarded as a cancer with a poor prognosis. Because there are no clear symptoms in the early stages, it is mostly found at an advanced stage, and the median survival at the time of diagnosis often stays at just 5–6 months. Standard treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation follow, but along the way they bring burdens such as digestive trouble, loss of appetite, weight loss, and fatigue.

Published in 2018 in the international journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, this study analyzed patients newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 1997 and 2010 from Taiwan's nationwide health insurance data (the catastrophic illness registry database). Matching 1:1 by age, sex, year of diagnosis, and index date, it compared 386 patients who added herbal medicine with 386 patients who did not, for a total of 772 patients.

After adjusting together for multiple factors (age, sex, comorbidities, type of treatment), patients who added herbal medicine had a 33% lower risk of death than those who did not (hazard ratio 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.56–0.79). In the survival curve (Kaplan-Meier) analysis, the herbal medicine group also had a higher probability of survival throughout the follow-up period (P<0.0001).

The longer the herbal medicine was taken, the better the effect

The most notable point in this study is that the benefit of herbal medicine grew clearly with the duration of use. In patients who took herbal medicine for 30–90 days, no statistically significant difference had yet appeared (hazard ratio 0.89), but in patients who took it for 90–180 days the risk of death was 44% lower (hazard ratio 0.56, 95% confidence interval 0.42–0.75), and in patients who took it beyond 180 days it fell by up to 67% (hazard ratio 0.33, 95% confidence interval 0.24–0.45). This trend of falling risk with longer duration of use was also statistically very strong (trend test P<0.0001).

This shows that herbal medicine is not a symptomatic remedy taken once or twice and then stopped, but a treatment that fully shows its power only when continued steadily. That is why, rather than stopping early, it is important to keep it up steadily for a sufficient period in consultation with your Korean-medicine doctor.

It was equally effective across all sexes, both men and women

The benefit of herbal medicine did not appear only in a particular group. The risk of death was 34% lower in female patients (hazard ratio 0.66) and 37% lower in male patients (hazard ratio 0.63), appearing consistently regardless of sex.

There is one more point worth noting. In this study, the patients who added herbal medicine were in fact more likely to have received chemotherapy (70.2% vs 59.6%) and radiation therapy (39.9% vs 31.4%). In other words, even though these were patients whose disease may have been more advanced, their risk of death was nonetheless lower. This suggests that herbal medicine treatment may have exerted a synergistic effect together with standard therapy. It also aligns with the fact that patients who add herbal medicine generally have a lower rate of dropping out of standard treatment partway through.

Don't put off the benefits of herbal medicine any longer

Like other studies, this one once again clearly shows that the effect becomes even more evident when herbal medicine is added to standard therapy. In particular, we must remember that the effect was maximized when herbal medicine was administered continuously over a long period. If you are undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer or are about to begin it, we close by encouraging you to consult thoroughly with a Korean-medicine specialist and steadily continue an herbal medicine prescription suited to you.