Study on syndrome distribution and medication characteristics of patients with rectal cancer in the real world

Objective:To explore the general characteristics,traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)syndromes and medication of patients with rectal cancer in China.Methods:The clinical data of inpatients with rectal cancer from the information system of 17 tertiary A‑level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in China were collected.After data standardization,descriptive analysis was performed on the general information,syndrome distribution and medication characteristics of the included patients,and association rule analysis was performed on the drug usage.Results:A total of 15424 hospitalized patients with rectal cancer were included.The ratio of male to female patients was 1.6:1,the average age was 60.87 years old,and the age was mainly in the range of 50 to 79 years old.Among the 12146 patients with rectal cancer,the top 5 TCM syndromes were Qi and Yin deficiency syndrome(25%),phlegm and blood stasis syndrome(19%),spleen deficiency syndrome(14%),Qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome(7%)and Qi and blood deficiency syndrome(6%).After excluding the anti‑tumor western medicine recommended by the guidelines,adrenal corticosteroids(43.55%),antibiotics(42.94%)and immunomodulatory drugs(42.66%)ranked the top three in the frequency of western medicine use.Dexamethasone(38.15%),metoclopramide tablets(20.51%)and furosemide injection(19.71%)were the three most commonly used western medicines.Among the three western medicines combined,cimetidine,granisetron hydrochloride dextrose injection+dexamethasone were the most common(support 8.23%,confidence 96.4%,and improvement 2.48%).Heat‑clearing and detoxifying agents(53.72%),Yiqi‑fuzheng agents(49.76%)and blood‑activating and stasis‑removing agents(15.68%)ranked the top 3 in the frequency of use of traditional Chinese medicine.Shenqi Fuzheng injection,Shenqi Fuzheng injection(21.59%),Compound Kushen injection(17.52%)and Aidi injection(11.96%)were the three most commonly used Chinese patent medicines.Conclusion:The main syndromes of patients with rectal cancer may be Qi and Yin deficiency syndrome,phlegm and blood stasis syndrome,and spleen deficiency syndrome,etc.The treatment needs to focus on the supplementation of vital essence,combination of dredging and tonifying method,and the integration of traditional Chinese and western medicine.