Analyze the Drug Regularity in the Prescription to the Treatment of Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma by R Language

Object Application of R language to analyze the drug regularity in the treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma by traditional Chinese Medicine. Method Retrieval of the traditional Chinese medicine knowledge database in Chinese Wan-fang Database and extract the prescription for the treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma. Drug and symptom data set was built by Excel, and applied R language for frequency analyses, cluster analyses and association analyses, then draw the cluster diagram and associated graph. Results The common drugs used in the treatment of liver cancer are Hedyotis diffusa, Glycyrrhiza, Atractylodes, Scutellariae barbata, Lanceolata, Salvia, Curcuma Longa, Bupleurum, Poria and Peony root in turn. The common drug pairs were Astragalus-Glycyrrhiza, Poria-Atractylodes, Lanceolata-Atractylodes, Lanceolata-Glycyrrhiza, Scutellariae barbata-Salvia. Hedyotis diffusa often composition of the drug pair with Glycyrrhiza, Glycyrrhiza and Lanceolata. Single drug of Gardenia, Bupleurum, Astragalus, Scutellariae barbata and Pinellia were often used for the pain of liver, while the drug pairs were Pinellia-Bupleurum, Hedyotis diffusa-Astragalus, Bupleurum-Poria, Scutellariae barbataBupleurum and Bupleurum-Curcuma Longa. Conclusion Application of the R language for data mining of traditional Chinese medicine database can effectively explore the rule of drug treatment for liver cancer, and has a certain value for further elucidating the pharmacological mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions and guiding the clinical use of drugs. China is a high incidence of primary hepatocellular carcinoma country, about 383,000 people died of liver cancer each year, and mortality ranks second in malignant tumors[1]. Because the onset of liver cancer is occult, as well as the early lack of typical symptoms. So it is often found to have progressed to an advanced stage and lost the opportunity for surgery. For the patients with advanced liver cancer with poor therapeutic effect of western medicine, reasonable application of traditional Chinese medicine can often obtain certain curative effect, which is helpful to improve the symptoms, alleviate the pain and improve the life quality of the patients.[2,3] However, it is difficult to sum up the role of traditional Chinese medicine due to the application of syndrome differentiation and the complex compatibility, and makes the scientific nature of traditional Chinese medicine questioned. Drug pair is the basic form of traditional Chinese medicine compatibility, which constitutes by 2 relatively fixed drugs. It is a bridge for the research between single drug and prescription, because of its simple structure, clear curative effect, etc. This study starts with the drug pair to construct liver cancer treatment prescription data set. The modern statistical method and R language were used to mine the data, which were helpful to further understand the role of compatibility of traditional Chinese medicine. Then reveal the relationship between the core medication and compatibility of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma, and provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of liver cancer by traditional Chinese medicine.