INTRODUCTION
Primary liver cancer (PLC) is the fifth most common
cancer worldwide and its mortality ranks third among
all other major cancers.1 More than half of the new annual cases (749 000) and 695 000 deaths attributed to
PLC worldwide occur in China.2 Unfortunately,
PLC-related incidence and mortality continue to rise
according to data from the Chinese cancer registry system.3
PLC is considered as a disease with a complex
pathogenesis and poor prognosis; it is estimated that
the 5-year survival rate is less than 30% even for localized
liver cancer, and the average 5-year survival rate
for all stages is approximately 15%.4 The poor prognosis
is mainly attributed to the high recurrence rate after
curative hepatectomy and the lack of effective adjuvant
therapy.5 However, Traditional Chinese Medicine
(TCM) has contributed considerably to the prevention
and treatment of PLC by prolonging survival time,
postponing tumor recurrence and metastasis, and improving
quality of life and alleviation of symptoms.6-8
Moreover, it has been reported that the specific TCM
patterns or TCM constitution could be independent
factors for survival of patients with PLC.9,10
Pattern differentiation combined with the characteristics
of the disease itself is a distinguishing feature of
TCM treatment; thus, patterns are the premise of
TCM therapy. Therefore, the differentiation of patterns
is the key step, and the TCM pathogenesis, based
on the characteristics of the disease itself, is the quicker
and easier path to obtaining satisfying therapeutic outcomes.
However, there is no widely accepted standard
for the pattern differentiation of PLC yet, and the positions
regarding the pathogenesis seem to vary. TCM
pattern characteristics through the process of oncogenesis
and PLC development help to deduce the TCM
pathogenesis. In this study, we analyzed the pattern of
398 patients newly diagnosed with PLC and compared
the pattern characteristics among the different stage
groups to supply more data that can be used to summarize
the TCM pathogenesis of PLC.