Meta-analysis of effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine or its combination with Western medicine in the treatment of triple negative breast cancer

Purpose: To assess the efficacy and side effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the management of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods: Full text data on randomized controlled trial (RCT) of TNBC treated with TCM or its combination with Western Medicine (WM) were retrieved from the Chinese biomedical literature database, Chinese periodicals, Chinese Science-Technology periodicals and VP and PubMed. The qualities of the RCTs were evaluated. Revman 5.3 was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results: A total of 16 RCTs involving 1186 patients were included. Analysis of these RCTs showed significant differences in total effectiveness between WM and TCM or combination of TCM with WM {(OR = 2.63, 95 % CI = 1.37, 5.03), test of the combined effect (Z = 2.91, p < 0.005)}. Conclusion: The results show that TCM is effective in the treatment TNBC.