This article talks about a recent massive review of research literature by both Australian and Chinese university medical research groups that found that the employment of Chinese herbs and traditional Chinese medicinal methods to treat cancer has led to an overwhelming number of successful cancer treatment cases.
A large scale review of research by
Australia and Chinese University scientists has proved with thousands of
studies using hundreds of thousands of cancer patients that Chinese
herbal medicine offers significant treatment for most types of cancers –
including breast cancer.
The
research comes from Australia’s University of Western Sydney and the
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. The researchers analyzed and
reviewed 2,964 human clinical studies that involved 253,434 cancer
patients. Among these were 2,385 randomized controlled studies and 579
non-randomized controlled studies.
These
studies covered most of the cancer types, but the cancers most studied
were lung cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer,
esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer
and nasopharyngeal (throat and sinus) cancer. Yes, breast cancer was
the fourth most-studied type of cancer among these thousands of clinical
studies.
The researchers discovered that the overwhelming majority of studies – 90% of the clinical studies – utilized herbal medicine.
The
researchers found that 72% of these studies applied Traditional Chinese
Medicine alongside conventional treatment, but a full 28% applied
Traditional Chinese Medicine separately to experimental groups.
In
terms of cancer patients, about 64% were given both TCM and
conventional medical treatments. The rest were given TCM therapy alone,
but a little over half of them did not qualify whether the patient was
given conventional treatment at some point in the past.
Because
of the large number of studies, there were different types of results,
depending upon the type of study, the type of treatment, and the outcome
measures tested. Still, in a full 1,015 studies or 85% of those that
reported on symptoms, TCM treatment resulted in improvement of cancer
symptoms with many of those reporting reduced pain. Another 883 studies –
70% – showed increased survival rates. Another 38% showed reduced tumor
size, and 28% showed increased quality of life. Another 19% showed
lower relapse rates and another 7% showed reduced complications.
The
researchers also found that only a few studies tested TCM acupuncture
treatment in cancer therapy. In their discussion they qualified that acupuncture treatment
in cancer therapy to alleviate pain is quite popular in the U.S., but
in Chinese cancer studies, herbal medicine therapy is the leading type
of holistic treatment for cancer.
This
study follows another extensive review of research published in 2012 on
TCM cancer treatment. This study comes from Norway’s National Research
Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the University of
Tromsø, Norway, also with collaboration with the Beijing University of
Chinese Medicine.
This earlier study
reviewed significantly fewer studies, compiling 716 trials that
included 1,198 cancer patients with either leukemia, stomach cancer,
liver cancer or esophageal cancer.
Among these studies, 98.5% used
herbal medicine, and again, acupuncture therapy was rare. In this
study, symptom improvement was achieved in 85% of the patients that used
the TCM therapy.
In yet another
study – this one much larger than the second – 1,217 clinical studies
between 1958 and 2011, involving 92,945 patients were analyzed and
reviewed by researchers from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
Among these studies, 66% of the patients were treated with TCM therapy
alone, while 34% of the patients were treated with a combination of TCM
and conventional cancer therapy. Also, 82% of the patients were given
herbal medicines orally.
Only 5% of
the patients were given more than one type of TCM therapy. This means
that 95% were treated with only one type of TCM therapy – typically with
a precise combination of herbs.
This
study found that among the studies treating cancer, symptom relief was
the prominent result among 88% of the studies and among 88% of the
patients tested with TCM therapy. Increased survival rates resulted in
73% of patients. Among all the rest of the studies, 96% of the trials
resulted in symptom relief and 92% of the patients reported cancer
symptom relief.
Did we get this
right? Was that 88% and 92% symptom improvement or relief among
thousands of studies and nearly 100,000 cancer patients? And 85%
improvement of cancer symptoms among 716 clinical studies? And 85%
symptom improvement among 1,015 clinical studies among a review
involving over 250,000 cancer patients that tested the effectiveness of
Chinese herbal medicine against cancer?
It
sounds pretty solid that Chinese herbal medicine does indeed treat
cancer and overwhelmingly results in the improvement or relief of
symptoms as well as longer survival rates and reduced metastases.
Now
why again is Western conventional medicine still refusing to at least
consider herbal medicine therapy in cancer treatment? Could there be a
profit motive involved? Could it have to do with the fact that herbal
medicines cannot be patented? In other words, is Western conventional
medicine ignoring inexpensive natural treatments that could help millions of cancer patients simply because of profits?
Actions speak louder than words.
With over 25 years of service and expertise as a multi-awarded cardiologist, physician, and community health leader, Dr. Steven Farber blends natural methods of therapy with traditional modes of medicine to provide optimal health care to his patients. For updates and news on his practice and community efforts, follow this Twitter page.
