Characteristics of gastric cancer in syndromic classifications on Traditional Chinese Medicine: Analysis of 767 cases

AIM: To analyze the characteristics of gastric cancer based on the syndromic classifications, and to provide the basis for standardizing the syndromic classifications of gastric cancer in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). METHODS: The cases (n = 767) of gastric cancer were collected from several hospitals. The symptoms and clinical signs on TCM (118 in total) were obtained by questionnaire, and their rates in different syndromic classifications were analyzed. RESULTS: Two hundred and fifty-two cases (32.86%) belonged to the type of deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach, and 233(30.38%) belonged to the discordance of liver-stomach. The numbers of cases, which belonged to the classification of the stasis and endogenous toxics, the deficiency of both Qi and blood, the stagnation of phlegm-damp, Yin-insufficiency due to stomach-heat, were 90(11.73%), 74(9.65%), 65(8.47%) and 55(7.17%), respectively. Only 12 out of 118 symptoms and physical signs had no significant difference among the 6 gastric cancer classifications on TCM. The other 106 symptoms and physical signs were markedly different among the 6 syndromic classifications (all P<0.05). The rates of characteristic symptoms or physical signs in each classification on TCM were higher than others. CONCLUSION: The characteristic symptoms or physical signs are clear-cut in this study, which provides theoretical evidence and basis for standardizing the syndromic classifications of gastric cancer on TCM.