LI Yanlong 1 , ZHENG Xinze 1 , LAN Lingyan 2 , WANG Ying 1 , SU Wei 3 , CHEN Jiahui 1 , QI Xiangjun 1 , LI Xuewei 4,5 , AN Bo 4,6 , YU Ling 4,5 , SUN Lingling 4,5 , LIN Lizhu 4,6
  • 1. The First Clinical Medical School of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, P. R. China;
  • 2. The First Clinical Medical School of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310000, P. R. China;
  • 3. The First Clinical Medical School of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210000, P. R. China;
  • 4. The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, P. R. China;
  • 5. Guangdong Clinical Research Academy of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, P. R. China;
  • 6. Lingnan Medical Research Center of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, P. R. China;
SUN Lingling, Email: linlizhu@gzucm.edu.cn; LIN Lizhu, Email: sunlingling5094@gzucm.edu.cn
Chinese herbal compounds; pulmonary nodules; systematic review; meta-analysis
10.7507/1007-4848.202407068
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Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) compound in treating pulmonary nodules, providing basic evidence-based medical evidence for TCM intervention in pulmonary nodules. Methods Computer search of PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed was conducted to select randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TCM compound intervention in pulmonary nodules, with the retrieval time from the inception to November 29, 2023. The Cochrane bias risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies, and Review Manager 5.4 was used for Meta-analysis. Results A total of 18 RCTs were included, covering 8 provinces across the country, with a total sample size of 1301 patients. The TCM compounds used in the included studies all incorporated the method of dissolving phlegm and dissipating nodules. There was a high risk of bias uncertainty in the included studies. Meta-analysis results suggested that TCM compound could significantly reduce the diameter of pulmonary nodules [MD=−1.41, 95%CI (−1.70, −1.13), P<0.001], decrease the number of nodules [MD=−0.37, 95%CI (−0.73, −0.01), P=0.05], alleviate clinical symptoms [MD=−4.84, 95%CI (−6.04, −3.64), P<0.001], and improve lung function [forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), MD=0.55, 95%CI (0.09, 1.01), P=0.02; FEV1/forced vital capacity, MD=6.12, 95%CI (4.47, 7.78), P<0.001]. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the probability of malignancy between the experimental group and the control group [MD=−0.01, 95%CI (−0.01, 0.00), P=0.09]. Conclusion TCM compound can significantly reduce the diameter of pulmonary nodules, decrease the number of nodules, alleviate clinical symptoms, and improve lung function, but future multicenter, large-sample, high-quality RCTs are still needed to further explore and verify this conclusion.