OBJECTIVETo observe the Chinese medical syndrome features of patients with primary liver cancer before and after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).

METHODSRecruited were 106 primary liver cancer (PLC) patients treated with TACE at the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from May to November 2009. Using self-control study, the distributions of 8 syndrome types were compared, such as qi stagnation syndrome, blood stasis syndrome, excess-heat syndrome, fluid and damp syndrome, qi deficiency syndrome, blood deficiency syndrome, yin deficiency syndrome, and yang deficiency syndrome. The scoring for each syndrome quantization was performed to all patients before and after TACE.

RESULTSEight syndromes occurred in the 106 patients before treatment, amounting to 412 cases. The proportions of syndrome types in PLC patients before TACE were ranked from high to low as blood stasis syndrome [(92 cases, 86.8%)], excess-heat syndrome [(73 cases, 68.9%)], qi stagnation syndrome [(62 cases, 58.5%)], qi deficiency syndrome [(62 cases, 58.5%)], yin deficiency syndrome [(60 cases, 56.6%)], blood deficiency syndrome [(30 cases, 28.3%)], yang deficiency syndrome [(18 cases, 17.0%)], fluid and damp syndrome [(15 cases, 14.2%)]. The 8 syndromes occurred in 456 cases after TACE. The proportions of syndrome types in PLC patients after TACE were ranked from high to low as blood stasis syndrome [(89 cases, 84.0%)], qi deficiency syndrome [(87 cases, 82.1%)], excess-heat syndrome [(85 cases, 80.2%)], qi stagnation syndrome [(52 cases, 49.1%)], yin deficiency syndrome [(49 cases, 46.2%)], blood deficiency syndrome [(42 cases, 39.6%)], yang deficiency syndrome [(32 cases, 30.2%)], fluid and damp syndrome [(20 cases, 18.9%)]. After TACE the proportions of qi deficiency syndrome and yang deficiency syndrome increased with statistical difference (P<0.01, P<0.05). There were no statistical difference in terms of other syndromes between before and after TACE (P>0.05). Blood stasis syndrome and qi stagnation syndrome got the highest quantization scores before TACE. After TACE blood stasis syndrome and qi deficiency syndrome got the highest quantization scores. After TACE the score of qi stagnation syndrome decreased, while that of excess-heat syndrome, qi deficiency syndrome, blood deficiency syndrome, yang deficiency syndrome increased (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSIt's necessary to pay attention to regulating qi, clearing heat, replenishing qi, and removing stasis for treating liver cancer patients. Clearing heat, replenishing qi, enriching blood, and warming yang after TACE should also be paid equal attention to while using syndrome typing methods.