Table 1: Patient demographic data. Deﬁciency (n = 127) Excess (n = 7) 1 : 0.84 1 : 0.75 75.82 ± 11.21 67.14 ± 9.17 55.69 ± 16.18 71.67 ± 17.22 Number of patients (% within group) Complex (n = 91) 1 : 0.98 72.57 ± 12.85 60.23 ± 15.49 38 (29.9%) 11 (8.7%) 16 (12.6%) 9 (7.1%) 11 (8.7%) 7 (5.5%) 7 (5.5%) 3 (2.4%) 4 (3.1%) 3 (2.4%) 3 (2.4%) 3 (2.4%) 2 (1.6%) 2 (1.6%) 2 (1.6%) 3 (2.4%) 3 (2.4%) 10.20 ± 2.02 5.90 ± 3.49 90.71 ± 47.19 200.59 ± 256.56 36.08 ± 69.48 2.26 ± 0.27 26.74 ± 6.27 3 (42.9%) 1 (14.3%) 1 (14.3%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (14.3%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (14.3%) 11.63 ± 1.33 5.15 ± 3.54 70.50 ± 58.06 187.67 ± 151.49 40.50 ± 15.98 2.15 ± 0.25 23.00 24 (26.4%) 16 (17.6%) 9 (9.9%) 6 (6.6%) 3 (3.3%) 5 (5.5%) 3 (3.3%) 6 (6.6%) 4 (4.4%) 1 (1.1%) 1 (1.1%) 1 (1.1%) 1 (1.1%) 1 (1.1%) 0 (0%) 4 (4.4%) 6 (6.6%) 11.00 ± 1.94 7.01 ± 5.02 97.10 ± 62.50 234.82 ± 275.38 88.64 ± 449.30 2.22 ± 0.17 27.44 ± 6.46 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Gender ratio male: female Age in years (mean ± SD) PPS (0–100) (mean ± SD) Primary cancer Lung Colorectal Hepatobiliary Prostate Stomach Breast Gynaecological Pancreas Urinary system Nasopharyngeal Thyroid Haematological Oesophagus Brain Head and neck Others Unknown/missing data Haemoglobin mg/dL Urea mmol/L Creatinine µmol/L Alkaline phosphatase IU/L Alanine aminotransferase U/L Serum calcium mmol/L Serum albumin mg/L Biochemical parameters (mean ± SD) Deﬁciency: deﬁcient pattern; excess: excessive pattern; complex: deﬁciency-excess complex. PPS: palliative performance scale. Biochemical parameters were determined for those patients with blood tests within three months. patients (56.4%) and 7 patients (3.1%) were in deﬁcient and excessive patterns, respectively, while 91 patients (40.4%) were in deﬁciency-excess complex. Deﬁciency-excess com- plex was a pathological state in which both deﬁciency and excess syndromes existed in the disease process [3]. The distributions of the ﬁve syndromes were: Qi deﬁciency (93.3%), Qi stagnation (40.0%), blood (Yin) deﬁciency (28.9%), Yang deﬁciency (22.2%), and excess heat (5.8%). 3.1. Demographic Data. Among the total of 225 patients, there were 119 males and 106 females. The three most common primary cancers were lung, colorectal, and hepato- biliary, accounting for 52.9% of the total. Patients in deﬁcient pattern had the highest mean age at 75.82 years (SD = 11.21) and lowest PPS score at 55.69 years (SD = 16.18), while those in excessive pattern had the lowest mean age at 67.14 years (SD = 9.17) and highest PPS score at 71.67 (SD = 17.22), with P value < 0.05. However, there were no signiﬁcant diﬀerences in gender and type of primary cancer. For the biochemical parameters, the level of blood haemoglobin, but not for urea, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, calcium, and albumin, had signiﬁcant diﬀerences among three groups. Patients in excessive pattern had the highest level of blood haemoglobin at 11.63 mg/dL (SD = 1.33), while those in deﬁcient pattern had the lowest level at 10.20 mg/dL (SD = 2.02), with P value = 0.008 (Table 1). 3.2. Manifestations and Distributions for Patients in the Five Syndromes. The syndromes of excess heat, Qi stagnation, Qi deﬁciency, blood (Yin) deﬁciency and Yang deﬁciency were diﬀerentiated by the Chinese Medicine practitioner, and coexistence was allowed for patients with symptoms and signs complicated from more than one syndrome. The dominant manifestations of patients in each syndrome, with prevalence ≥50%, were listed in Table 2. Dry mouth, fatigue, and ﬁne pulse were the common manifestations for patients with these ﬁve syndromes. Besides, the pattern of Qi deﬁciency was the fundamental syndrome among advanced 3 P value 0.837 0.039 0.016 0.898 0.008 0.140 0.425 0.711 0.445 0.243 0.712