The Use of Chinese Herbs With Radiotherapy

By Alex Berks L. Ac. Dipl. Herbs, FABORM
Clinical Director of Chinese Medicine Oncology

Integrating Chinese herbal medicine with conventional radiotherapy can be of immense benefit to a cancer patient. In the scientific literature it is reported across many studies from China that the integration of both medicines is better than either one alone.

This article addresses the prescription of Chinese herbs for a radiation patient. Chinese Medicine includes acupuncture, qi gong, tai qi, massage and diet therapies, all of which are of great value to a cancer patient.

Radiation therapy can injure surrounding healthy tissue, damage fragile mucosal barriers in the lungs and intestines, injure salivary production, cause digestive problems, dryness, inflammation and even scorching depending on location, intensity and duration of the treatment. Radiotherapy can also injure the bone marrow. While the targeting of radiation therapy has vastly improved to protect surrounding tissue, radiation therapy is still a significant challenge.

From a Chinese Medicine perspective the heat from radiotherapy that is intense enough to destroy tissue generates a "toxic heat". Cancer is itself a toxin. Radiotherapy is a toxin to fight a toxin.

Herbs that rebalance the body can prevent side effects of radiotherapy, restore health and vitality, and prevent relapse and metastasis. Rebalancing is a concept of Chinese Medicine that is a fabulous complement to the cure seeking of Western Medicine.

Rebalancing against radiation toxicity is done along a continuum of signs and symptoms. For example, toxic heat depletes the moistening properties of the blood and injures the mechanisms of energy production. Then the body, in an effort to compensate for the heat, dryness and depletion of fluids, produces phlegm as a substitute lubricant. This phlegm, when combined with heat, can injure the elimination pathways in the bladder and large intestine, stagnate and deplete the blood and cause further weakness. At late stages the vital essence is injured and there is very poor energy production and compensation. Applying Chinese Medicine diagnostic principles and appropriate treatment at each stage is a way to prevent this degeneration and many side-effects.

Research has also shown that Chinese herbs improve the sensitivity of the tumor to radiotherapy. A tumor's sensitivity to radiation is in part dependent on blood supply and oxygenation of the tissues. Herbs can improve both. It is reported that tumors have a ratio of anoxic cells which have poor radiation sensitivity. Radiation therapy may reach only about 1/3 of cells with a low oxygenic state. Low tumor infiltration by radiation is considered one of the factors causing cancer relapse.

Research studies done on single herbs, though not representative of how herbs are most beneficially applied, are illustrative of the efficacy and principles of multi-herb formulas. An example of this is a study done on a Liguistrazine extract of the common Chinese herb Chuan Xiong (Radix Liguistici Wallichi). This herb is known in the Chinese pharmocopeia as a blood activator. The results of this study showed that the rats responded to the herbal extract with increased microcirculation in caliber, flow speed, flow status and capillary count. It is not hard to see that a formula with this and other synergistic herbs could improve the microcirculation of peri-tumor tissue and the tumor body, increase blood perfusion in the tumor body, improve cell's anoxic state and could elevate the sensitivity for tumor tissue to radiation therapy. (1)

The following studies demonstrate the value of Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) in conjuction with radiotherapy (RT) to improve survival rates, lessen the impact of depletion of white blood cells, and improve the ability to finish the full course of treatment.

This study from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences included 197 nasopharyngeal cancer patients who were treated with Chinese herbs plus radiation therapy compared to radiotherapy alone. The combined therapy group had twice the number of patients survive to five or more years than the radiotherapy alone group. The tumor was killed in more patients in the combined therapy group and the remote metastatic rate was less in the combined group. These findings imply that Chinese herbal medicine could enhance the radiosensitivity of tumors. (2)

Survival Rate N =197

	1 year	3 Years	5 years
CHM + RT	91.3%	67.4%	52.4%
RT	80%	33.3%	24%

Disappearance of the tumor

CHM + RT	95.7%
RT	88.6%

Cause of Death

Primary lesion relapse or metastatic lesions

CHM + RT	34.8%
RT	52.4%

In another study researching the efficacy of herbs to prevent and treat side effects of radiation therapy, 71 patients were in an active treatment group with herbs and radiation and the control group was given a placebo herbal formula plus radiation.
The results showed 84.5% were able to finish the full course of radiotherapy versus 63.3% in the control group. The type and staging of the cancer was not revealed.(3)

In another small study, white blood cell counts did not go as low in a combined treated group as they did with radiotherapy alone. One particular formula Fu Zheng Xiao Formula (FZZX), was shown to moderate T-lymphocyte subset. (4)

Another combined herb-radiation study was conducted with nasopharyngeal cancer patients who continued taking herbs for 6 months after the radiation was finished. The 5 year survival rate was 75%. The authors indicate that Chinese medicine combined with radiation improved the effectiveness of radiation therapy while minimizing its toxicity in both the short and long term. In this study there was no mention of a control group. (5)

Mice studies have also showed improved efficacy when radiation and herbs were combined both on white blood cell counts and survival rate. Interestingly, the survival rates were even higher in the mice that were given the herbal mixture 1 week before beginning treatment with radiation. (6)

Many studies, repeatedly show that Chinese herbal medicine formulas can be combined efficaciously and safely to improve life expectancy and prevent adverse side effects of radiation treatment. Herbs should be started 1 week before starting radiotherapy and continue for at least 6 months after treatment to achieve maximum benefit.

Please consult with a trained Chinese Medicine practitioner who is knowledgeable in the integrative support of cancer recovery.

Footnotes:

1. Zhang Dai-Zhao An Integrated Clinical Approach with Chinese Medicine: Alleviating The Side Effects of Cancer Treatment 2nd Edition (Beijing: Peoples Medical Publishing House, 2007) p. 86.

2. Donald Abrams, Andrew Weil, Integrative Oncology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) chapter 13 p. 269.

3. Zhang Dai-Zhao p. 83.

4. Zhang Dai-Zhao p. 83.

5. Zhang Dai-Zhao p. 85.

6. Zhang Dai-Zhao p. 86.

The Benefits of Bloodletting

Leave behind what you think about vampires, or barbaric medicine from the 18th century. In this video my Chinese Medicine Practitioner friend talks about bloodletting on th E! channel documentary Radical Hollywood Cures.

In reality bloodletting techniques that I perform are the removal of drops -not pints - of blood. No more than what can be dabbed in a few cotton balls. This is not some True Blood fantasy come to life. One of the primary indications for blood letting is blood stagnation characterized according to Chinese Medicine theory by sharp and stabbing localized or fixed pain.

Interesting Case: Stage 4 endometriosis patient with severe pain that she reports as excruciating during her period. She cannot work for a day or two every month and frequently she is taking Vikodin. The diagnosis is blood stagnation. She reports getting fantastic relief from removing stagnant blood from minor varicose veins around her knee. It is not something that she has to wait to feel. As soon as the blood comes out she gets instantaneous relief.

Alex on E! Entertainment Television

This is a clip of me performing Gua Sha (scraping technique) on E! TV special called Radical Hollywood Cures. The conceptual framework of disease in Chinese Medicine is defined as blockage of energy (qi) and blood. Gua Sha is a scraping technique to relieve toxins. It can help remove toxins and heat from patients getting radiotherapy. This is not done in the radiation field. It can also be done for many painful condtions of the back. In the show they were going for the ewww! factor but in reality it does not hurt and does not leave lasting marks.

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Immune weakness in a post Herceptin Treatment patient

I have been seeing a patient who recently stopped Herceptin. She was diagnosed with Her2/neu breast cancer and then a subsequent tumor on her spine. Recently she has had 4 minor infections in the past few months. The most recent was oral thrush. I recommended she treat it with a combination of diluted grapefruit seed extract, swishing and swallowing and acidophilus swishing and swallowing. I also gave her an astragalus based herbal formula.

The patient was not sure if i had diagnosed this correctly so she went to her ENT MD who also diagnosed it the same. He wrote her a prescription for Diflucan, an antifungal drug. The patient then called me up to ask if any of the herbs would interact with Diflucan. Good question. This is what I found in my search from a pharmacist/author John Chen whom I know is experienced with herbs:

On the other hand, drugs that inhibit liver metabolism have an immediate onset of action. The rate of liver metabolism may be greatly impaired within a few days. Therefore, there is a higher risk of herbs accumulating inside the body as the function of the liver to inactivate them is compromised. Examples of drugs that slow down or inhibit liver metabolism include, but are not limited to, Tagamet (cimetidine), erythromycin, ethanol, Diflucan (fluconazole), Sporonox (itraconazole) and Nizoral (ketoconazole). Therefore, the herbs may be inactivated more slowly and the overall effectiveness may be prolonged. In this case, one may need to lower the dosage of herbs to avoid unwanted side-effects. see complete article

After I explained to the patient that it was not a good idea to take herbs with Diflucan and why, the patient asked me what she should do. I told her to try the natural treatment over the weekend, rest and follow an antifungal diet (no sweets, alcohol, glutenous grains or fermented foods etc...) if it did not help than go on the drug. I saw the patient again today and thankfully the mouth sores were significantly better.

The question of why this patient is getting frequent infections and showing signs of weak immune system function is an interesting one and I will see how I can get her to feel better and hopefully prevent her cancer from returning by improving her overall functional health. One small victory today was good, very good.

Having had thrush as a teenager I know how painful this can be.

Success Story Fertility

Sara (not her real name) faced the statistics of age-related fertility when in her early 40's she wanted to have a family. Sara tried naturally, monitoring her ovulation but nothing happened. Then she tried IUI's (intrauterine insemination) and was still frustrated. She then graduated to IVF's (in-vitro fertilization) . She did two medicated cycles both times producing low quality embryos. This was a very stressful period for Sara. Her work and relationship suffered. Fertility it seemed was her right as a woman but getting pregnant and was going to be a longer journey than she thought.

The stress of infertility is not new. It is chronicled in In the book of Kings. Hannah is described as childless and weeping for years. After counsel with a religious leader she eventually gave birth to the Prophet Samuel. For anyone it can be deeply discouraging to want something that you seem to be unable to get, particularly when you may feel it is your god-given right. The personal choices of health and lifestyle practices as well as empowering emotional support all can help keep your mind centered and thereby promote fertility.

Now Sara was no longer 41 she was 43. The clock was ticking. Upset with the medicalization of her fertility and deeply discouraged by what seemed like an unattainable goal, she decided to work on herself. She came to our clinic and began regular acupuncture sessions and made changes in her diet. She took herbs and nutritional supplments and began to keep a journal. She became engaged in the process of examining her attitudes and beliefs about conception. This led to attending the Fertile soul™ support group. While contemplating whether to try a third IVF Sara fell pregnant on her own. She stuck with her herbs and acupuncture through the first trimester. In the spring Sara gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

If, as the saying goes, "luck favors those who are prepared", Sara story is about sticking with a goal by cleaning up mental and emotional blockages while keeping her body healthy. It is empowering to know that challenges can be overcome. That she defied age-realted statistics is icing on the cake. It does not always happen this way and success can also mean becoming a parent in other ways.

Send us your story or share your comments about this one.

when Back Pain Is Not Back Pain

The musculo-skeletal system is amazingly dynamic. Not that we ever think of it that way until something goes wrong. This is the story of a patient who had severe back pain which interestingly enough was not treated in the back. A 37 year old male patient, otherwise healthy, came to see me complaining of severe back pain lasting for 1 1/2 weeks. Upon examination I noticed that his muscles on the left side of his spine were inflamed and his calf muscles were bulging particularly on the left side. What kind of exercise had he been doing? He told me he was a runner and that he used to skateboard a lot and that was why his left calf was over-developed. Considering that Chiropractic treatments earlier in the week did not provide him enough relief, I decided to do an acupressure test on him. I massaged deeply on the left hamstring and calf muscles to see what his response would be on his back. To my excitement he reported that the muscle tension in his back improved. This was a good clue to do more. So I worked deep into the soft tissue of his legs and glutes bilateral. Then I had him turn over to release the iliopsoas muscle group. These are hip flexor muscles that can cause back pain. His psoas muscles were painfully tight. First I released them with a distal acupuncture point in the foot so I could release them manually in the lower abdomen without causing so much discomfort. It is interesting and amazing to press on a tight psoas muscle (located in the lowest part of the abdomen near the inguinal groove) and have the patient feel intense pain and then put a needle in the foot (GB41 if you really want to know) and have the same psosas muscle area be significantly softer and relaxed instantly. Patients upon feeling this change will say something like "Wow! How can a needle in my foot help my psoas like that." For which I respond, That is the mystery and magic of Acupuncture. To fully relax the person and further soften the back I performed acupuncture. The patient walked out feeling good.

This kind of treatment outcome could not be achieved by acupuncture alone yet happens everyday in our office to people looking for natural solutions to thier health care concerns.

Do acupuncture points exist?

Yan X, Zhang X, Liu C, Dang R, Huang Y, He W, Ding G.

Department of Physics, Surface Physics Laboratory (State Key Laboratory), and Synchrotron Radiation Research Center of Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China. Shanghai Research Center of Acupuncture and Meridian, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China.

We used synchrotron x-ray fluorescence analysis to probe the distribution of four chemical elements in and around acupuncture points, two located in the forearm and two in the lower leg. Three of the four acupuncture points showed significantly elevated concentrations of elements Ca, Fe, Cu and Zn in relation to levels in the surrounding tissue, with similar elevation ratios for Cu and Fe. The mapped distribution of these elements implies that each acupuncture point seems to be elliptical with the long axis along the meridian.

Advances Elusive in the Drive to Cure Cancer

Alex Writes:  This NY Times article reviews the history of survival rates of various cancers in wonderful interactive graphs and more... The best part are the letters from readers in response to this article.  

In 1971, flush with the nation’s success in putting a man on the Moon, President Richard M. Nixon announced a new goal. Cancer would be cured by 1976, the bicentennial.

Forty Years’ War

An Expensive Priority

Articles in this series will examine the struggle to defeat cancer.

Multimedia

Interactive Graphic

A Stubborn Disease

Graphic

Still Deadly

Related

As Other Death Rates Fall, Cancer’s Scarcely Moves (April 24, 2009)

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When 1976 came and went, the date for a cure, or at least substantial progress, kept being put off. It was going to happen by 2000, then by 2015.

Now, President Barack Obama, discussing his plans for health care, has vowed to find “a cure” for cancer in our time and said that, as part of the economic stimulus package, he would increase federal money for cancer research by a third for the next two years.

Cancer has always been an expensive priority. Since the war on cancer began, the National Cancer Institute, the federal government’s main cancer research entity, with 4,000 employees, has alone spent $105 billion. And other government agencies, universities, drug companies and philanthropies have chipped in uncounted billions more.

Yet the death rate for cancer, adjusted for the size and age of the population, dropped only 5 percent from 1950 to 2005. In contrast, the death rate for heart disease dropped 64 percent in that time, and for flu and pneumonia, it fell 58 percent.

Chinese Herbs for Cancer

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

Acupuncture Eases Radiation-induced Dry Mouth In Cancer Patients

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2009) — Twice weekly acupuncture treatments relieve debilitating symptoms of xerostomia - severe dry mouth - among patients treated with radiation for head and neck cancer, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the current online issue of Head & Neck.

For the rest of the story either click here or on the title of the post

Soon I will start working at a radiation center I thought I would post relevant research about acupuncture and radiation therapy