Alex Writes: This article is a good overview of the TCM approach to cancer treatment.
Chinese herbalists have been medicating patients with tumors for over two
thousand years. 1 In stark contrast to Western oncology concepts that undergo
constant revision, Chinese medical ideas about tumor pathogenesis and herbal
responses have remained largely the same over the centuries.2 Still, though,
Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) approaches hold strong attraction for human
oncology patients and people whose animals have cancer.3 TCM practitioners
shun the image of “waging war on cancer” and instead embrace the more
peaceful and organic view of cancer as a journey, regarding the patient not as a
battlefield but as a garden to be nurtured.4 5 6
The enormous draw of Chinese medicine and other traditional medicine practices
led the World Health Organization to consider ways to best study the
effectiveness and safe implementation of CAM methods in clinical practice. In
response, they formulated the Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002-2005.7 In the
same year, the White House Commission published a Complementary and
Alternative Medicine Policy.8 Both organizations urged researchers to
investigate the claims and practices of long-held belief systems and empirically
derived treatments. The National Cancer Institute now recognizes that
following the leads laid by longstanding tradition will generate higher yields than
searching for cancer-fighting botanicals de novo.9 Even the Chinese Society of
Traditional Veterinary Science in Taiwan and the Asian Society of Traditional
Veterinary Science have sounded calls for more research and education in
Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) and, specifically, in herbal
prescribing.10
The assortment of Chinese herbal treatments being promoted for animal patients
with cancer is growing. Testimonials asserting reductions in tumor size in dogs
who received Chinese herbs further stoke enthusiasm and hopes of finding an
alternative cure.11 12 13 However, rather than basing the herbal prescription on
tumor type or biopsy results, herbs are matched to a patient’s disease “pattern”,
which sorts patients into groups according a system based on visible signs on
the body, the specifics of which are unique to TCM.14
TCM holds that tumors and cancer arise from emotional stress, overwork, poor
nutrition, invasion of pathogens, and poor circulation.15 16 Of these, impaired
circulation ranks as perhaps the most strongly linked etiologic factors leading to
cancer and metastasis.17 18 From a Chinese medicine perspective, the poor
circulation associated with the “blood stasis” pattern will not only deprive tissue of
vital oxygen, absorbed nutrients, and immune surveillance, and it also leads to
the buildup of metabolic end-products in the tissues. Modern oncology resonates
with this perspective at least in part, acknowledging that the microcirculation
within tumors can be abnormal and contain areas of sluggish perfusion.
Furthermore, some researchers have added anticoagulants to chemotherapy
agents in order to lengthen survival and prevent blood-borne metastasis.19
