Correspondence analysis between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation and histopathology in colorectal cancer

Abstract Introduction Defining Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome is considered the key therapeutical principle of TCM. The present study was to explore the correlation between TCM syndrome differentiation and histopathology in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods A total of 180 patients were differentiated into 5 TCM syndrome types, including accumulated damp-heat type (ADH), deficiency of both qi and blood type (DBQB), deficiency of liver and kidney yin type (DLKY), deficiency of spleen and kidney yang type (DSKY) and qi stagnation due to spleen deficiency type (QSSD). They were also differentiated into pathologic types, including adenocarcinoma, mucous carcinoma, signet ring cell carcinoma and anaplastic carcinoma. Moreover, the expression of protein 53 (P53), cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44), non-metastasis 23 (nm23), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) was detected by immunohistochemistry in 61 patients. Finally, the correspondence analysis between TCM syndrome differentiation and histopathology or pathological molecular markers was conducted. Results Chi-square test of independence showed that TCM syndrome types correlated with pathological types ( χ 2  = 33.456, P  = 0.001), while not with molecular markers ( χ 2  = 7.344, P  = 0.834). Correspondence analysis showed that the distances between adenocarcinoma and QSSD or DLKY were the shortest among the distances of adenocarcinoma with other TCM syndrome types. Moreover, distances between mucinous carcinoma and ADH, signet ring cell carcinoma and ADH, anaplastic carcinoma and DBQB were the shortest among all the types. Conclusion TCM syndrome differentiation is strongly correlated with histopathology of colorectal cancer. TCM syndrome differentiation may be used as a supplement in the diagnosis of CRC.