<i>Yin-Cold</i> or <i>Yang-Heat</i> Syndrome Type of Traditional Chinese Medicine Was Associated with the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Gene Status in Non‐Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients: Confirmation of a TCM Concept

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapies should be tailored according to the different syndrome types. In order to identify the relationship between the TCM <i>Yin-cold (YC)</i> or <i>Yang-heat (YH)</i> syndrome types and the <i>EGFR</i> gene status, we prospectively studied 310 NSCLC patients. TCM <i>YH</i> or <i>YC</i> was diagnosed by three TCM experts. TCM symptoms and signs were entered into a binary cluster analysis. The relationships between the <i>EGFR</i> gene status, <i>YH</i> or <i>YC</i> syndrome types, and classification by cluster analysis were analyzed using the chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression. In the 299 patients who had their <i>EGFR</i> gene tested, 45.24% <i>YC</i> (76/168) and 25.95% <i>YH</i> (34/131) patients had <i>EGFR</i> mutations (<i>p</i> = 0.001). Among the 292 patients entered into the cluster analysis, 132 were classified into group A, with signs and symptoms similar to <i>YC</i>, whereas 160 group B patients were similar to <i>YH</i>. In the 281 patients with <i>EGFR</i> tested, 45.67% group A (58/127) and 28.57% group B patients (44/154) had <i>EGFR</i> mutations (<i>p</i> = 0.003). The <i>EGFR</i> status was independently correlated with TCM syndrome type and classification by cluster analysis on multivariate logistic regression. NSCLC patients with <i>YC</i> were more likely to have <i>EGFR</i> gene mutations.