Treatment for cancer (1)
Cancer – current clinic
Without an ideal no-harm therapy for
cancer, doctors in conventional medicine must use highly toxic
chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgical therapy
treatments. Doctors would not choose to have such therapy
for themselves, should they find alternative means that are not
so harmful to the body.
In conventional medicine, the highest hope
for the treatment of cancer is a Five-year survival rate, rather
than a cure rate. The survival rate for cancer might be higher
when diagnosed in the early and middle stages. In the later
stage of cancer, it is the patient’s fate - to live or die (Fig.
1.)
Fig. 1. With so many
conventional “sophisticated” therapies, the survival rate – a
major measure of treatment effect has not witnessed a
significant increase from 1971 to 1998 for most cancers.
Cancer – Traditional Chinese Medicine
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM),
cancer is regarded as the result of blood stagnation and Qi
deficiency in the body. Blood belongs to the Yin but the Qi
belongs to Yang in the body. It is the Yang Qi that pumps the
blood, warms and activates the body functions. Pretty much
similar to the sun shining on living things on the earth, if
there is no enough Yang Qi in the body, the blood flow is
affected, which furthermore blocks the Yang Qi flow. This causes
the accumulation of toxins in the body, which leads to trouble
in health, such as cancer.
Among all reasons for the cancer, the
reduced Yang Qi in the body is the most important. The current
life style of most people may exhaust the Yang Qi in the body.
For example, stress damages the Yang Qi in the upper cavity of
the body (where the heart and lung located). The frequent intake
of cold beverage, ice cream, oil, fried food damage the middle
cavity of the body (where the stomach and spleen are located).
Uncontrolled sexual life (physically or emotionally), or
frequent pregnancies damage the Yang Qi in the lower cavity of
the body (where the liver and kidney are located).
The improper use of antibiotics, hormones
or refined vitamins, also damages the Yang Qi in the body.
Anything that we are eating or drinking contains both the Qi
(the Yang energy potency) and the Mass (the Yin structure).
The industrial refining process losses the Yang Qi in
food and beverage and leaves relatively more Yin mass in the
product. When we take such refined chemicals (or food), no
matter whether they be antibiotics, vitamins or minerals
(calcium or potassium), we would take more Yin mass into our
body. We may think
that we do not take antibiotics or hormones, but forget that the
milk or vegetables we eat every day could contain such refined
chemicals, since hormones and antibiotics are needed to allow
the cow to produce more milk and keep the domestic animals and
farm produce (rice, wheat, vegetables) disease free.
When the body has relatively more Yin,
people feel tired and have less physical or emotional energy.
They have less ability to handle daily life, have less patience,
less ability to focus on emotional works. They have reduced
memory, shallow sleep, sweat easily, have cold hands or feet or
have irregular bowel movements.
With damaged Yang Qi in the Heart system,
the Heart has reduced ability to manage the defense system and
clear the cancer cells. In TCM, the Heart system
(note: we talk about the Heart system, not the heart in
the conventional medicine) is the “King” in the body which
governs all bio-functions.
With damage in the Spleen system, it fails
to identify and transport the signal to the Heart that cancer
cells exist. The Spleen system is responsible for monitoring any
condition in the body and for transporting the signal to the
Heart.
With damaged Yang Qi in the Liver system,
it fails to transmit the signal from the Heart and fails to
launch the cleansing campaign to clear the cancer cells.
For the above reasons, one of the most
important treatment principles in the TCM for cancer is to
improve the Yang Qi production. With enough Yang Qi, the blood
flows smoothly and the functions in the Heart, Spleen, and Liver
would be normal. All contribute to solve disorders in the body.
Similar to sunshine in nature the Sunshine can melt ice and
“sunshine” in the body also helps
to “melt”
cancer.
It has been realized that, every cell in
the body should develop fully into a mature cell under normal
conditions. The body’s defense system cannot identify it as
“abnormal” after it has matured. If, for any reason, some cells
fail to develop into maturity, they are called cancer cells. As
with any normal cells in this stage, they have ability to
differentiate beyond the control of the body’s defense system.
The question is what causes them to stop
developing into mature cells?
Current medicine may contribute to damage
of the cells due to radiation, toxins from chemical materials…
while the TCM believes that it is because the cells have no
enough Yang Qi to help them develop. As it has been
mentioned above, all bodily functions are governed by the Yang
Qi. The cell differentiation needs the Yang Qi too.
Therefore, one of the most important
ways for the treatment of cancer is to help the cells resume
their development into mature cells.
Not to regard them as the enemy to be “killed” or “cut”.
In practice, this concept works. With
proper TCM treatment, cancer type can transform into normal
cells. Such cells have reduced differentiation rate, less chance
to spread into other part of the body (e.g. less metastasis). In
medical research, it has been proven possible for such cell
normalization. In conventional medicine, people still do not
know how to do it.
What TCM can do in the treatment of
cancer
In fact, cancer is not at all new to the
TCM. Cancer has been treated with the TCM for thousands of years
in China. The only thing missing is a
summarized, and statistically treated data, that is familiar and
understood by most medical researchers and clinics in the
western world. For the past fifty years, there are in deed lots
of clinic studies that have been performed in China for the
treatment of cancer with TCM. The data is so abundant that we
need not list them here.
(1).
For early and middle stage of cancer, the TCM alone is as
good as, and even better than
the conventional medicine in the treatment of cancers in
these stages, in terms of the 5-year survival rate of cancer
patients (Fig. 2).
Herb therapy alone is shown to be effective
for lung cancer, with a total effective rate of 89% (Fig. 2).
Herbal therapy alone is effective in the
treatment of late stage cancer also. Here, we are not only
talking about the survival rate, but the cure.
(2). Combination of conventional medicine
and TCM treatment of cancer usually yields a higher than 5-year
survival rate (Fig. 3 and 4). In these studies, the TCM therapy
has been used before, during or after the conventional
chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgical therapy.
There are lots of clinical studies showing
the benefits of the combination of TCM therapy and conventional
therapies. The TCM therapies tested include herbal therapy,
acupuncture, moxibustion, alone or in combination.
Fig. 5. Herbal therapy plus surgery is
shown to significantly increase the five-year survival rate of
breast cancer.
Similar results can be repeated in various studies with
different kind of cancer groups (Fig. 6 ).
Fig. 6.
The combination of
surgery- chemotherapy and herbal therapy is shown to
increase the 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer: to 68.4%
with the addition of herbal therapy compared to 36% without
herbal therapy.
Acupuncture is also effective in the treatment of cancer (Fig.
7), as well as the moxibustion therapy (Fig. 8).
Fig. 7. Animal studies show that
acupuncture alone or
together with chemotherapy may prevent the growth of
cancer mass in cancer-bearing rats.
(3). Whenever TCM is applied, patients have higher quality of
life. Patients
experience less pain, less chance for bleeding, anemia,
diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, or infection. Patients are
usually more energized with the TCM treatment (Fig. 9 to 12).
Fig. 10. Herb therapy is shown to be
effective for severe diarrhea after surgery of esophagus cancer.
More than 33% of the cases recovered within two days, and 50%
recovered within three days.
It has been
introduced above that one of the most important mechanisms for
Chinese herbal therapy in the treatment of cancer is to improve
the differentiation of cells in the body.
A normal embryo cell in
the body will fully develop into a normal body cell. If, for
some reason, the cells stop developing mid way to maturity, it
is called “cancer cells”. Since the cancer cells develop
similarly to those normal cells, the body’s defense system
cannot identify these as abnormal. Therefore, they are allowed
to grow freely, increasing in size and compressing the
surrounding tissue/organs and releasing metabolic waste material
and toxins into the body.
There have been many tests to study how herbs may improve the
differentiation of cells.
It has been observed in clinic that Chinese herbal therapy can
make the cancer shrink and even, disappear. For the past fifty
years, lab researches using in vitro cell culture and in vivo in
animals all suggest the possibility that some herbs can reverse
the property of the cancer cells to become normal. Researchers
have also tried to isolate active compounds that may be
responsible for the anti-cancer effects of the whole and
original herbs. So far, it has been known that there are at
least 64 herbs that show such anti-cancer effects.
Clinic experience and lab studies showed that, these herbs:
1. Inhibit cancer cells growth.
2. Stimulate immune system.
3. Make the cancer cells sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation
therapy.
4. Stimulate cancer cells to mature.
5. Correct symptoms of cancer and side effects caused by
surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Many active compounds have been identified and even isolated
from herbs. There are many compounds in a herb, not only one
compound.
Here is an example for such herbs.
Hong Dao Shan
Hong Dao Shan is the dried stem bark or leaf of Taxus chinensis
(Pily) Rehd.
The active compound found in the Hong Dao Shan is Taxol, which
exhibits a significant antineoplastic effect against P-388
leukemia-bearing mice and B-16 melanoma cells. In clinic, it is
used in the late stage breast cancer, non-small cell lung
cancer.
E Zhu
E Zhu
is the dried rhizome of Curcuma zedoaria Rosc., C. aromatica
Salisk. Curcumin, curcumenol and curdione are the most active
principle of the herb.
The problem with the application of the
isolated active compounds in the treatment of cancer is that it
works much like conventional chemotherapy: it kills cancer cells
but also hurts normal cells to induce side effects.
Theory validity
The following are findings which support
the theory that the cancer cell is a kind of normal cell but
stops differentiation mid way to maturity:
1. Normal cells can be found in typical
cancer tissues.
2. Mouse cancer cells could transform into
normal cells (about 19%)in culture.
3. Mouse testis teratoma can transform into
normal cells in body. (Pierce 1960)
4. Children neuroblastoma could
automatically transform into benign glioma in vivo or in vitro.
This phenomena can be found in several kinds of cancers, such as
mouse myeloma into normal cells.
5. High fever due to infection makes cancer
disappear (Buch, Coley 1893). Virus infected cancer cells become
normal forms at 38 C.
6. Leukemia cells can be transformed into
normal cells in culture, after addition of differentiation
promoter (13-cRA) (Breitman, 1980, 1983).
7. These experiments have been verified in
other cancer cells in culture (Cheson 1986)
8. Acute leukemia has been successfully
treated with differentiation promoter ATRA (1987, 1988,
China)
It is suspected that there must be a
differentiation promoter in the body, that works to help cells
fulfill their course to maturity. The promoter has been found in
both animal and plant sources.
In animals, it is found in animal hormones,
embryo extracts and under developed animal body cells. In
plants, it is found in herbs, fruits and vegetables too.
Thyroid hormone:
(1). High incidence of breast cancer is
related to low intake of iodine in food, as well as low thyroid
hormones in blood. Low intake of iodine – high incidence of
breast cancer (US); High intake of iodine – low incidence of
breast cancer (Japan);
(2). Feed iodine to rat could prevent the
incidence of breast cancer.
(3). Hyperthyroidism patients shows very
low incidence of breast cancer.
(4). Recurrent breast cancer patients show
lower thyroid hormone level.
(5). Hypothyroidism patients have five time
more incidence of breast cancer than other people.
Estrogen:
Another important hormone is estrogen. The
reasons for this are:
(1) Estrogen could prevent onset of stomach
cancer in mice.
(2) Pregnant women have low chance to get
breast cancer.
(3) Nuns have five times higher incidence
of breast cancer.
(4) Male have 1.25 times of higher
incidence of cancer than female.
Differentiation promoters in plants:
Plant hormones promote the development of
roots and leaves and sprouting of the plants. Plant hormones may
also, be able to promote the differentiation of animal cells.
The hormone includes ABA, cell stimulators and growth hormones. It
is found that herbs with the following characteristics
may have stronger differentiation ability: the herbs
with hairs on the stem or leaves; with saw
tooth, separation in the leaves; with multiple leaves from the
same starting position; with more underground fruits (such as
potato); with strong re-generation ability; or they grow in a
cane or are trailing.
The fruits that may have more cell promoter
are hawthorn, watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, tomato,
strawberry.
Good source of the cell promoters in
vegetables are kidney beans, onion, lotus root, cauliflower,
celery, sweet potato, summer squash, coriander, green bean, soya
bean, carrot, rutabaga, Chinese chives, garlic, wild cabbage,
peanut.
Good source of the cell promoters in animal
foods are various fishes, shrimp, shellfishes, sea cucumber and
animal livers.
Significance of the differentiation
theory
It opens a completely new direction towards
the treatment of cancer. We should help the cancer cells to
mature, rather than try to kill them. Be kind to nature, your
friends, your body and the cells in your body.
It enables the normalization of cancer
cells without damage to normal cells at all.
It makes the cure of some kinds of cancers
possible.
It explains the previous observations for
the normalization phenomenon of cancer cells, experimentally and
clinically.
It helps to find more useful herbs, foods
and chemicals for the treatment of cancer.
Problem with the differentiation theory
It should be pointed out that, the
differentiation promotion might be one of the mechanisms, not
the only mechanism that herbs work for cancer treatment. Nature
is more complex could be than we want it to be. That’s why the
differentiation promoter therapy only works for some cancers,
not for all. Also, with the extra amount of hormones, such as
thyroid hormone and estrogen, there could still be cancer
occurring in the body, though they are also the promoters.
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