A systematic review on the traditional Chinese medicine body constitution in different types of cancer

Introduction: Researchers in China have identified Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) body constitution in populations with a cancer diagnosis and integrated these findings into guidelines for cancer prevention. A balanced constitution indicates optimal health, lower susceptibility to and positive prognosis for illness, whereas an unbalanced constitution suggests an imbalance of core elements in TCM, with higher disease sensitivity. This review aimed to systematically analyze the distribution of TCM body constitutions according to different types of cancers in various geographic locations. Methods: The CNKI, SinoMed, Wan Fang, Science Direct, and PubMed databases were searched from January 2017 to November 2024. This review included cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies. The quality assessment of all included studies was conducted using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the TCM body constitution in each cancer. Results: A total of 5018 studies were retrieved and screened, and 28 studies involving 5581 patients in different geographical areas of China were included in this review. Qi deficiency constitution was prevalent in colorectal (26.1 % of patients with this cancer), esophageal (30.2 %), kidney (20.9 %), stomach (39.9 %), and soft tissue (30.9 %) cancers. The balanced constitution was prevalent in the lung (27.5 %) and nasopharyngeal (37.4 %) cancers and Yin deficiency constitution was prevalent in thyroid cancer (27.2 %). Yang deficiency constitution was prevalent in the liver (24.5 %) and ovarian cancer (20.6 %), Blood stasis constitution was prevalent in cervical cancer (19.3 %), and Qi stagnation constitution was prevalent in breast cancer (29.0 %). Conclusion: The identification of TCM body constitution according to different cancer diagnoses in populations in China offers novel approaches for epidemiology studies. The TCM body constitutions of cancers in other countries are yet to be explored. Given the limited evidence due to the poor quality of the included studies, further research is needed to determine if the TCM body constitution could serve as a reference for the public in predicting susceptibility to cancer and raising public awareness of the need to maintain a balanced constitution in cancer prevention.