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CC BY 4.0 · Chinese medicine and natural products 2025; 05(04): e252-e263
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1813655
Original Article

Correlation Analysis between Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes and Estrogen/Progesterone Receptors before and after Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

Authors

  • Bingxin Meng

    1   Department of Breast Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

  • Xufeng Cheng

    1   Department of Breast Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

  • Huiduo Zhao

    1   Department of Breast Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

  • Beibei Wang

    1   Department of Breast Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

Funding This work was supported by the 2022 Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientific Research Special Project of Henan Province, China (2022ZY1048), 2023 Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientific Research Special Project of Henan Province, China (2023YZ2043), and General Program of Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, China (232300421183).
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Abstract

Objective

This study aims to explore the correlation between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes and the expression status of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in breast cancer patients before and after adjuvant chemotherapy.

Methods

A total of 222 breast cancer patients with consistent ER and PR expression scheduled to undergo adjuvant chemotherapy were classified according to TCM syndrome differentiation before and after chemotherapy. The data were analyzed using chi-square tests and binary logistic regression with SPSS 26.0 software, and compared with ER/PR expression results.

Results

(i) In the ER-positive/PR-positive group, compared with prechemotherapy, syndromes of spleen qi deficiency, spleen deficiency with dampness-phlegm, and spleen–kidney deficiency significantly increased during mid-chemotherapy and after chemotherapy. Compared with mid-chemotherapy, spleen yang deficiency syndrome significantly increased after chemotherapy, with statistical significance (p < 0.05). (ii) In the ER-negative/PR-negative group, compared with prechemotherapy, syndromes of spleen qi deficiency and spleen deficiency with dampness-phlegm significantly increased during mid-chemotherapy, while spleen qi deficiency, spleen yang deficiency, and spleen–kidney deficiency significantly increased after chemotherapy. Compared with mid-chemotherapy, spleen–kidney deficiency and spleen yang deficiency syndromes significantly increased after chemotherapy, with statistical significance (p < 0.05). (iii) The distribution of spleen qi deficiency syndrome during mid-chemotherapy and after chemotherapy was significantly higher in the ER-positive/PR-positive group than in the ER-negative/PR-negative group, with statistical significance (p < 0.05). (iv) ER and PR were not independent influencing factors for the various syndrome types before and after adjuvant chemotherapy (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

After chemotherapy initiation, syndromes of spleen qi deficiency, spleen yang deficiency, and spleen–kidney deficiency significantly increased in both ER-positive/PR-positive and ER-negative/PR-negative groups. The distribution of spleen qi deficiency during mid-chemotherapy and after chemotherapy was significantly higher in the ER-positive/PR-positive group than in the ER-negative/PR-negative group. ER and PR were not independent influencing factors for the syndrome types before and after adjuvant chemotherapy.

Keywords

breast cancer - adjuvant chemotherapy - TCM syndromes - estrogen receptor - progesterone receptor

CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement

Bingxin Meng: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, visualization, writing -original draft, and writing-review and editing.

Xufeng Cheng: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, data curation, project administration, supervision, writing -original draft, and writing-review and editing.

Huiduo Zhao: Data curation, formal analysis, investigation, writing -original draft, and writing-review and editing.

Beibei Wang: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, project administration, writing -original draft, and writing-review and editing.




Publication History

Received: 02 June 2025

Accepted: 24 July 2025

Article published online:
30 December 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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