Based on the nationwide survey into inpatients' utilization of the health service covered by China's urban basic medical insurance from 2008 to 2010, we analyzed the use rate,
cancer profile and combined use of anticancer Chinese
patent medicines (
CPMs) on 51,382 insured
cancer patients by using statistical, bi-clustering and network methods. We found that 42.4% of 51,382
cancer patients used 33 anticancer
CPMs, and 51.7% used 71 anticancer Western medicines (WMs). The
CPMs were most often used in lung (52%) and nasopharynx (52%)
cancer patients, and least in
bladder cancer (21%) and
leukemia of unspecified cell type (21%) patients. The cost per patient for all 33 anticancer
CPMs was 2069RMB, lower than that of the WMs (3458RMB). The
cancer profile of commonly used
CPMs and WMs for the top 17
cancers (>500 sampled patients) were provided, indicating anticancer
CPMs had a broad spectrum of
cancers and lacked selectivity in
cancer treatment (CPM mean CV = 49%; WM mean CV = 152%). Moreover, 24.8% of the
cancer patients used both
CPMs and WMs, and CPM-WM combined use networks were constructed for four major
cancers. This first nationwide analysis revealed the use characteristics and herb-
drug combined use patterns of insurance covered anticancer
CPMs in China. The study offers valuable information to guide future studies of the precision, safety and standard use of
CPMs.