Effect of add-on therapy with Traditional Chinese Medicine on the survival of patients with anemic lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes in the real-world setting: a retrospective study.

Objective: To illustrate the effect of add-on therapy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on the long-term survival of anemic lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR-MDS) patients.

Methods: In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the data of patients with LR-MDS who were identified from Shuguang Hospital between January 2006 and June 2020. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival (OS), while the Cox model was employed to analyze prognostic factors of long-term survival. A total of 162 patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups: the TCM group (n = 78) or the non-TCM group (n = 84).

Results: There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics. The cumulative survival rate of the TCM group was significantly higher than that of the non-TCM group [log-rank P = 0.029, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.484, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.249, 0.942), P < 0.05]. Patients with longer TCM treatment appeared to have better OS (≥ 12 months vs < 12 months); [HR, 0.166 95% CI (0.055, 0.508), P < 0.001)]. According to the Cox model analysis, the combination of TCM and conventional Western Medicine may be a protective factor affecting the long-term survival of LR-MDS patients [HR = 0.509, 95% CI, (0.261, 0.993), P = 0.048]. The hematologic improvement erythroid response (HI-E) rate of the TCM group was significantly higher than that of the non-TCM group (69.23% vs 52.38%; P = 0.028). However, the duration of HI-E and cases of disease progression after HI-E did not significantly differ from the non-TCM group (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: The integration of TCM and Western Medicine has the potential to extend the OS of LR-MDS patients when compared to the use of Western Medicine alone.