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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Feb 15, 2026; 18(2): 114690
Published online Feb 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i2.114690
Published online Feb 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i2.114690
Efficacy and safety of integrated Chinese and Western medicine in advanced pancreatic cancer: A double-center retrospective cohort study
Ying-Rui Wang, Department of Hematology and Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Jin-Qiu Wang, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Xue-Jiao Chen, Department of Oncology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Yu Yan, Peng-Fei Jiao, Department of General Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Yu Zhang, Meng-Yi Li, Wei Wang, Tian-Yu Fan, Chao-Feng Zhou, Department of Oncology, Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Co-first authors: Ying-Rui Wang and Jin-Qiu Wang.
Co-corresponding authors: Peng-Fei Jiao and Chao-Feng Zhou.
Author contributions: Wang YR and Wang JQ prepared the initial manuscript draft as co-first authors; Wang YR, Wang JQ, and Yan Y analyzed and interpreted patient data; Wang YR, Wang JQ, Jiao PF, and Zhou CF conceived and designed the study; Wang YR, Yan Y, Zhang Y, Li MY, Wang W, and Fan TY undertook materials preparation and data collection; Jiao PF and Zhou CF critically revised the initial manuscript draft as co-corresponding authors; all authors contributed substantially to the work, reviewed and approved the final manuscript, critically reviewed the manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the research.
Institutional review board statement: This retrospective study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. HNSZYYWZ-20250811075). The requirement for informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the study.
Informed consent statement: This study is a retrospective analysis based on archived medical records. All data were obtained from archived medical records within the institution. Prior to data extraction and analysis, all records underwent thorough de-identification. The research does not involve identifiable participant information, infringe upon personal privacy, or pose any potential risk or harm to participants. Therefore, no informed consent form is required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement - checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement - checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chao-Feng Zhou, Chief Physician, Department of Oncology, Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 6 Dongfeng Road, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China. doctorzcf@126.com
Received: September 26, 2025
Revised: November 9, 2025
Accepted: December 15, 2025
Published online: February 15, 2026
Processing time: 130 Days and 12.3 Hours
Revised: November 9, 2025
Accepted: December 15, 2025
Published online: February 15, 2026
Processing time: 130 Days and 12.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Advanced pancreatic cancer (PC) is associated with poor prognosis. In this double-center retrospective cohort study, the median survival time in the Western medicine (WM) group was 10.67 months, while the integration of Chinese and WM group demonstrated an additional 2.24 months of survival. This breakthrough exceeded the conventional 12-month median survival time threshold for PC, nearing the survival outcomes achieved with targeted immunotherapy and combination chemotherapy, which are at the forefront of precision treatments. These findings suggest that integrated Chinese and WM models may provide survival advantages to patients with advanced PC.