TCM for Cancer
November 2004
Articles
Herbs, Acupuncture, and Qi Gong for Immune Support
By Adina Stanescu, Ac., DCHM
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been describing and treating cancer with varying success for millennia, using herbs, acupuncture, and qi gong. The same tools figure prominently in the TCM prevention arsenal, not only for cancer, but all chronic disease.
Integration of TCM with conventional cancer care is currently the norm in China, and there is much research to support the benefits. The West, on the other hand, lags far behind, though several promising developments are afoot.
THE RESEARCH FRONT
To understand what reasonable expectations one may have when using Chinese herbs for cancer, it may be helpful to assess the current climate of TCM research, both here and in the East.
Recently at the University of California, 70 Chinese herbs were studied for in vitro activity against cancer cells. The herbs, many from the traditional category of “clear Heat and Poison” were chosen based on their traditional usage. According to the researchers, “many of the herbs demonstrated significant inhibitory effects in our initial screening.”1
Though not part of traditional TCM, this type of laboratory analysis is increasingly common in China, with positive findings published regularly in hundreds of medical journals. Further, the Chinese quickly follow with studies on people, and as such are miles ahead of the North American game. This is because TCM is in no way considered experimental there, nor dangerous or unproven, and doctors have much more freedom to apply new research or clinical experience. Unfortunately, their findings never make their way across the ocean, certainly not to any mainstream scientific or media attention here.
The reason is twofold: very few Chinese studies are double blind, as that model is considered unethical and unnecessary, since TCM is considered effective a priori. Secondly, science has a hard time accepting individualized, compound cures, i.e. a herbal formula composed of 10 to 15 plants.
This last point is where TCM and Western science have their clash of titans. TCM, as many readers of Vitality understand, is a kind of medical “theory of relativity.” This means herbs are only helpful in relation to the individual patient and his or her particular disease presentation and constitution — herbs that may have cured Mrs. X’s cancer may do little for Mr. Y’s. Further, Mrs. X’s cancer can only hope to be addressed with a lot of ingredients in order to reflect her complexity, i.e. the mass, the cancer toxin, the organs affected, her previously weak kidneys, her deficient blood, her poor digestion and chronic constipation, all the things that permitted the cancer to develop in the first place.
This thinking drives most Western scientists mad. They want one substance, or better yet, the “active constituent” of one substance, which will work on everyone’s cancer, every time, independent of anything else, with reproducible accuracy. Consequently, when the University of California scientists explored Chinese herbs for cancer, this is how they did it: “We have subjected an herbal tea...to a variety of procedures for separating out different constituents. Following each procedure we test the activity of each fraction for its ability to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells in culture. The active fraction(s) are then subjected to the next separation procedure. We....have gone from a tea containing hundreds to thousands of components to a fraction containing 4 – 6 components. We are beginning to.... test them individually..” (emphasis added).
Within the scientific model, the idea, so central to TCM, that herb constituents, or groups of herbs, may work better in relation to each other than alone, is not currently accepted. An integrated medical model for cancer would utilize TCM diagnostics and prescription to arrive at the basic formula, then add several herbs that lab work has found to be particularly effective against the specific malignancy.
CHINESE HERBAL TREATMENT
According to Isaac Cohen, a TCM breast cancer specialist in California, Chinese herbal therapy for cancer is complex and capable, with broad ranging therapeutic goals:
• i. tumour load reduction and anti-neoplastic effect: herbs that “Clear Heat and Poison”
• ii. modulate immune system: tonic herbs such as Astragalus
• iii. enhance and protect organ function: with yin and yang tonics
• iv. strengthen digestion and nutrient absorption: digestive tonics such as Codonopsis
• v. protect bone marrow and hematopoiesis (blood formation): Kidney essence tonics such as Lycium
• vi. minimize side effects of chemotherapy and radiation: many herbal categories used.
In China an estimated 70 to 80% of urban breast cancer patients combine TCM and western medicine, with close to 100% of rural women doing so. An article in the Journal of Chinese Medicine surveyed studies done in China on the results of combined therapy, and concluded: “A direct effect of integrated Western medicine and TCM on both recurrence-free survival and overall survival are noted.”2 Herbs play a vital part in preventing recurrence, because therapy targets the health of all organ systems and immune functions, in order to increase resistance.
Treating the cancer directly with herbs is possible and useful as long as one is being treated by a TCM oncologist, or very experienced internal medicine specialist. Still, even in China this is not done to the exclusion of chemotherapy and radiation. Herbs take time to work, and sometimes with cancer, time is of the essence. It is very possible and even likely, that early cancers that are known to spread slowly could be treated with herbs alone, and in a medical utopia, laboratory cancer typing would be used to assess the feasibility of this on a case by case basis.
ACUPUNCTURE
The national institute of Health NIH in the United States released a consensus statement on acupuncture, after reviewing the available scientific literature on it. One of the uses they felt had been proven was reduction of nausea after surgery or as a consequence of chemotherapy.3 Most impressive was a study done at Duke University, which concluded that acupuncture was slightly more effective than the leading drug treatment for the treatment of post-surgery nausea.4
One of the worst side effects of chemotherapy is lowered immunity, manifesting specifically as decreased white blood cell count, i.e. leukopenia. In its review of acupuncture clinical trial reports, the World Health Organization concluded that “among various blood disorders, leukopenia is the most suitable for acupuncture treatment.” Acupuncture was in fact more effective than two leading drug treatments for chemotherapy induced leukopenia.5
Some may remember that it was acupuncture as anesthesia during surgery that first garnered North American attention in the 1970s and showcased its powerful pain killing effects. If pain is present with cancer, acupuncture treatment can offer very useful management and reduction of pain killing drugs, lessening the overall chemical burden on the body. The WHO concluded that acupuncture’s effect on pain was comparable to codeine immediately upon treatment, but surpassed codeine after two months of treatment.
Lastly, acupuncture can provide wonderful supportive treatment of organ function throughout the illness or conventional treatment, as well as treating accompanying depression and anxiety.
QI GONG
Qi gong is the practice of energy cultivation and manipulation. Recent developments in quantum physics have shown that energy fields, and matter in its smallest forms, can be influenced, changed, moved, by calm, focused intention. This is actually the modern rediscovery of an ancient TCM saying: “where the mind goes, qi (energy) will follow.”
The medical implications are that the tangible, material blockages of illness (i.e. tumours) can be inactivated and reduced with energy manipulating practices such as meditation and qi gong. The emerging science of psychoneuroimmunology is beginning to study the myriad effects of this type of practice on the body’s immune response, through qi gong’s influence on the autonomic nervous system.
If qi gong is practised diligently and consistently, dramatic change can take place. In China, people know qi gong as the last hope, especially with cancer. But as a last hope, it needs to be practised daily, for at least two hours, for many weeks or months, preferably with a qi gong practice group or master. Many classes can now be found throughout southern Ontario.
PRECANCEROUS CONDITIONS
I believe that this is an area of huge potential for TCM treatment, and one that patients are well advised to seek out aggressively. Western medicine can enumerate many conditions that are thought to either lead to or increase one’s chances of getting cancer, yet has no direct treatments for many of them. Examples are fibrocystic breast disease (breast cancer), chronic hepatitis infection (liver cancer), bowel polyps and chronic constipation (colon cancer), gastroesophageal reflux disease (gastric and esophageal cancer), lung damage from smoking (lung cancer), human papilloma virus (cervical cancer).
TCM treatment is very effective for these and can reverse the damage that they have caused, as well as the risk of later malignancy. The fact that cancer has not yet developed allows herbs and acupuncture the time that they need to work, thereby eliminating one of the disadvantages of any natural therapy.
PREVENTION
TCM has always stressed the importance of safeguarding and boosting one’s Qi and Blood to ward off all diseases. This is done by avoiding overwork, eating a broad range of mostly cooked foods that include animal protein, and taking courses of tonic herbs now and again. However, I believe this advice needs to specify that our conventional food supply is no longer capable of helping us to produce healthy Qi, but is rather a source of “Heat and Poison.” We must go out of our way to seek out organic, “from scratch” meals if food is to be our preventive medicine.
FINDING A PRACTITIONER
This will depend on the aim of treatment. First ask yourself what you want to accomplish with TCM. For side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, any good general practitioner of TCM can probably help with acupuncture and herbs. Remember that this is tried and true in China, and TCM will not lessen the effectiveness of the conventional therapy.
Cancer is not easy to treat. Treating the cancer directly with herbal medicine, or working to prevent recurrence and metastasis definitely requires a TCM cancer specialist or very experienced internal medicine clinician. Make sure the practitioner’s experience and training is specifically in TCM, as it is common for MDs trained primarily in western medicine in China to now practise TCM in Canada. Ask if the practitioner keeps abreast of recent advances through English or Chinese TCM journals. Ask if you will be prescribed herbal pills, granulated extracts or boiled herbal decoctions. For cancer, the last two are preferable as they deliver the high potencies that are needed.
Adina Stanescu runs the TCM Skin Clinic in Toronto. She can be reached at (416) 968-3308 or at www.thetcmclinic.com.
REFERENCES
1. M. Campbell, University of California “In Vivo Effects of Chinese Herbal Extracts on Breast Cancer” 2004.
2. I. Cohen “Traditional Chinese Medicine in the treatment of breast cancer” Journal of Chinese Medicine No. 68, Feb. 2002
3. NIH Consensus Statement, Acupuncture, 1997.
4. TJ Gan, Duke University, Science Daily 2001
5. Acupuncture: Review and analysis of reports on controlled clinical trials WHO Geneva, 2002
By Adina Stanescu, Ac., DCHM
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been describing and treating cancer with varying success for millennia, using herbs, acupuncture, and qi gong. The same tools figure prominently in the TCM prevention arsenal, not only for cancer, but all chronic disease.
Integration of TCM with conventional cancer care is currently the norm in China, and there is much research to support the benefits. The West, on the other hand, lags far behind, though several promising developments are afoot.
THE RESEARCH FRONT
To understand what reasonable expectations one may have when using Chinese herbs for cancer, it may be helpful to assess the current climate of TCM research, both here and in the East.
Recently at the University of California, 70 Chinese herbs were studied for in vitro activity against cancer cells. The herbs, many from the traditional category of “clear Heat and Poison” were chosen based on their traditional usage. According to the researchers, “many of the herbs demonstrated significant inhibitory effects in our initial screening.”1
Though not part of traditional TCM, this type of laboratory analysis is increasingly common in China, with positive findings published regularly in hundreds of medical journals. Further, the Chinese quickly follow with studies on people, and as such are miles ahead of the North American game. This is because TCM is in no way considered experimental there, nor dangerous or unproven, and doctors have much more freedom to apply new research or clinical experience. Unfortunately, their findings never make their way across the ocean, certainly not to any mainstream scientific or media attention here.
The reason is twofold: very few Chinese studies are double blind, as that model is considered unethical and unnecessary, since TCM is considered effective a priori. Secondly, science has a hard time accepting individualized, compound cures, i.e. a herbal formula composed of 10 to 15 plants.
This last point is where TCM and Western science have their clash of titans. TCM, as many readers of Vitality understand, is a kind of medical “theory of relativity.” This means herbs are only helpful in relation to the individual patient and his or her particular disease presentation and constitution — herbs that may have cured Mrs. X’s cancer may do little for Mr. Y’s. Further, Mrs. X’s cancer can only hope to be addressed with a lot of ingredients in order to reflect her complexity, i.e. the mass, the cancer toxin, the organs affected, her previously weak kidneys, her deficient blood, her poor digestion and chronic constipation, all the things that permitted the cancer to develop in the first place.
This thinking drives most Western scientists mad. They want one substance, or better yet, the “active constituent” of one substance, which will work on everyone’s cancer, every time, independent of anything else, with reproducible accuracy. Consequently, when the University of California scientists explored Chinese herbs for cancer, this is how they did it: “We have subjected an herbal tea...to a variety of procedures for separating out different constituents. Following each procedure we test the activity of each fraction for its ability to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells in culture. The active fraction(s) are then subjected to the next separation procedure. We....have gone from a tea containing hundreds to thousands of components to a fraction containing 4 – 6 components. We are beginning to.... test them individually..” (emphasis added).
Within the scientific model, the idea, so central to TCM, that herb constituents, or groups of herbs, may work better in relation to each other than alone, is not currently accepted. An integrated medical model for cancer would utilize TCM diagnostics and prescription to arrive at the basic formula, then add several herbs that lab work has found to be particularly effective against the specific malignancy.
CHINESE HERBAL TREATMENT
According to Isaac Cohen, a TCM breast cancer specialist in California, Chinese herbal therapy for cancer is complex and capable, with broad ranging therapeutic goals:
• i. tumour load reduction and anti-neoplastic effect: herbs that “Clear Heat and Poison”
• ii. modulate immune system: tonic herbs such as Astragalus
• iii. enhance and protect organ function: with yin and yang tonics
• iv. strengthen digestion and nutrient absorption: digestive tonics such as Codonopsis
• v. protect bone marrow and hematopoiesis (blood formation): Kidney essence tonics such as Lycium
• vi. minimize side effects of chemotherapy and radiation: many herbal categories used.
In China an estimated 70 to 80% of urban breast cancer patients combine TCM and western medicine, with close to 100% of rural women doing so. An article in the Journal of Chinese Medicine surveyed studies done in China on the results of combined therapy, and concluded: “A direct effect of integrated Western medicine and TCM on both recurrence-free survival and overall survival are noted.”2 Herbs play a vital part in preventing recurrence, because therapy targets the health of all organ systems and immune functions, in order to increase resistance.
Treating the cancer directly with herbs is possible and useful as long as one is being treated by a TCM oncologist, or very experienced internal medicine specialist. Still, even in China this is not done to the exclusion of chemotherapy and radiation. Herbs take time to work, and sometimes with cancer, time is of the essence. It is very possible and even likely, that early cancers that are known to spread slowly could be treated with herbs alone, and in a medical utopia, laboratory cancer typing would be used to assess the feasibility of this on a case by case basis.
ACUPUNCTURE
The national institute of Health NIH in the United States released a consensus statement on acupuncture, after reviewing the available scientific literature on it. One of the uses they felt had been proven was reduction of nausea after surgery or as a consequence of chemotherapy.3 Most impressive was a study done at Duke University, which concluded that acupuncture was slightly more effective than the leading drug treatment for the treatment of post-surgery nausea.4
One of the worst side effects of chemotherapy is lowered immunity, manifesting specifically as decreased white blood cell count, i.e. leukopenia. In its review of acupuncture clinical trial reports, the World Health Organization concluded that “among various blood disorders, leukopenia is the most suitable for acupuncture treatment.” Acupuncture was in fact more effective than two leading drug treatments for chemotherapy induced leukopenia.5
Some may remember that it was acupuncture as anesthesia during surgery that first garnered North American attention in the 1970s and showcased its powerful pain killing effects. If pain is present with cancer, acupuncture treatment can offer very useful management and reduction of pain killing drugs, lessening the overall chemical burden on the body. The WHO concluded that acupuncture’s effect on pain was comparable to codeine immediately upon treatment, but surpassed codeine after two months of treatment.
Lastly, acupuncture can provide wonderful supportive treatment of organ function throughout the illness or conventional treatment, as well as treating accompanying depression and anxiety.
QI GONG
Qi gong is the practice of energy cultivation and manipulation. Recent developments in quantum physics have shown that energy fields, and matter in its smallest forms, can be influenced, changed, moved, by calm, focused intention. This is actually the modern rediscovery of an ancient TCM saying: “where the mind goes, qi (energy) will follow.”
The medical implications are that the tangible, material blockages of illness (i.e. tumours) can be inactivated and reduced with energy manipulating practices such as meditation and qi gong. The emerging science of psychoneuroimmunology is beginning to study the myriad effects of this type of practice on the body’s immune response, through qi gong’s influence on the autonomic nervous system.
If qi gong is practised diligently and consistently, dramatic change can take place. In China, people know qi gong as the last hope, especially with cancer. But as a last hope, it needs to be practised daily, for at least two hours, for many weeks or months, preferably with a qi gong practice group or master. Many classes can now be found throughout southern Ontario.
PRECANCEROUS CONDITIONS
I believe that this is an area of huge potential for TCM treatment, and one that patients are well advised to seek out aggressively. Western medicine can enumerate many conditions that are thought to either lead to or increase one’s chances of getting cancer, yet has no direct treatments for many of them. Examples are fibrocystic breast disease (breast cancer), chronic hepatitis infection (liver cancer), bowel polyps and chronic constipation (colon cancer), gastroesophageal reflux disease (gastric and esophageal cancer), lung damage from smoking (lung cancer), human papilloma virus (cervical cancer).
TCM treatment is very effective for these and can reverse the damage that they have caused, as well as the risk of later malignancy. The fact that cancer has not yet developed allows herbs and acupuncture the time that they need to work, thereby eliminating one of the disadvantages of any natural therapy.
PREVENTION
TCM has always stressed the importance of safeguarding and boosting one’s Qi and Blood to ward off all diseases. This is done by avoiding overwork, eating a broad range of mostly cooked foods that include animal protein, and taking courses of tonic herbs now and again. However, I believe this advice needs to specify that our conventional food supply is no longer capable of helping us to produce healthy Qi, but is rather a source of “Heat and Poison.” We must go out of our way to seek out organic, “from scratch” meals if food is to be our preventive medicine.
FINDING A PRACTITIONER
This will depend on the aim of treatment. First ask yourself what you want to accomplish with TCM. For side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, any good general practitioner of TCM can probably help with acupuncture and herbs. Remember that this is tried and true in China, and TCM will not lessen the effectiveness of the conventional therapy.
Cancer is not easy to treat. Treating the cancer directly with herbal medicine, or working to prevent recurrence and metastasis definitely requires a TCM cancer specialist or very experienced internal medicine clinician. Make sure the practitioner’s experience and training is specifically in TCM, as it is common for MDs trained primarily in western medicine in China to now practise TCM in Canada. Ask if the practitioner keeps abreast of recent advances through English or Chinese TCM journals. Ask if you will be prescribed herbal pills, granulated extracts or boiled herbal decoctions. For cancer, the last two are preferable as they deliver the high potencies that are needed.
Adina Stanescu runs the TCM Skin Clinic in Toronto. She can be reached at (416) 968-3308 or at www.thetcmclinic.com.
REFERENCES
1. M. Campbell, University of California “In Vivo Effects of Chinese Herbal Extracts on Breast Cancer” 2004.
2. I. Cohen “Traditional Chinese Medicine in the treatment of breast cancer” Journal of Chinese Medicine No. 68, Feb. 2002
3. NIH Consensus Statement, Acupuncture, 1997.
4. TJ Gan, Duke University, Science Daily 2001
5. Acupuncture: Review and analysis of reports on controlled clinical trials WHO Geneva, 2002