Association Between Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Chinese Medicine Constitution: A Meta-Analysis

To explore the distribution of Chinese medicine constitution (CMC) types across the spectrum of health states related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and provide evidence-based information for the prevention and treatment of NPC at different stages of the disease.

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and three major Chinese databases were searched to retrieve literature reporting the correlation between populations across related health states of NPC and CMC, using the same standardized classification since 2009. Three authors independently screened and evaluated the quality of the methodology. The main outcomes were the single proportion and the odds ratio (OR) of each constitution type across related health states of NPC, and the effect sizes were expressed as proportions or as ORs with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed to determine the sources of heterogeneity.

Data of 1174 patients from 11 different studies were included in the present study. Qi-deficiency (QD), balanced, and Yang-deficiency constitutions accounted for 25.5% (95% CI: 19.0-32.0, p < 0.01), 16.1% (95% CI: 18.1-26.1), and 15.4% (95% CI: 9.5-21.4), respectively. The distribution across related health states of patients with NPC varied across different stages of the disease. QDC showed a significant association with both Epstein-Barr virus infection and NPC diagnosed status in the included populations compared with that in healthy controls.

QDC is a major factor associated with NPC across different health statuses. However, the cross-sectional nature of the available evidence highlights the need for more high-quality prospective cohort studies to clarify the temporal relationship and causal role of specific constitutions in NPC development.