Exploring rules of traditional Chinese medicine external therapy and food therapy in treatment of mammary gland hyperplasia with text mining

Mammary gland hyperplasia (MGH) is a kind of endocrine disorder diseases, which is usually characterized by lump and pain in breast and an increased risk event of breast cancer. The complementary therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) play important roles in MGH treatment. This study analyzed the application of the TCM external therapy and food therapy by text mining. Subsequently, suitable techniques and methods which were frequently used on MGH treatment were explored. Results showed that external application of Chinese herb medicine, acupuncture, massage, catgut embedding, and magnet therapy were the top 5 TCM external therapy techniques, while fritillaria Oyster, alga, trionyx, kelp, arrowhead, pseudo-ginseng, lemon, leonurus, and hawthorn were the top 10 foods used for MGH treatment. The combinations of external therapy techniques were demonstrated in network, so does the combinations of the foods. The results provided good references for both clinical practice and basic research.