Combined Western-traditional medicine could boost cancer treatment: expert
AP - Western science and traditional Chinese medicine could be combined to enhance treatment of cancer and other diseases, an oncology professor told a medical forum Sunday.
But comprehensive clinical studies must be carried out and patients must be educated to accept the combination of methods, Tony Mok Shu Kam, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told participants at a two-day medical forum in Singapore sponsored by the Lancet medical journal.
“Traditional medicine was previously the standard medicine, and a large portion of cancer patients still use it,” Mok said referring to China. “We cannot discredit traditional medicines, because they are so old and they are still here, so there must be some virtue. But we must do something in a scientific fashion to prove it better.”
While a number of Chinese studies have been published on the efficacy of some common herbal medicines, Mok said their trials were too small or the methods too inconsistent to be approved in the West.
“We have to move forward and invest in high-quality studies,” Mok said.
Some traditional Eastern medicines have been proven effective through research and clinical trials. For example, Artemisin, used for more than 2,000 years in Chinese herbal medicine, is emerging as a drug of choice for treating drug-resistant malaria, an advance supported by the World Health Organization.
Mok referred to ongoing studies in the United States and Russia that are examining the use of kanglaite, commonly used as a supplement in Chinese diets and one of the top-selling anti-cancer traditional herbs. Another Western-led study is looking at the herb astragalus, used in China to boost the immune system during chemotherapy.
Another researcher worried that too many people in developing countries are being taken advantage of by untrained traditional healers.
“There are many people who are not trained. These people are out to make money,” Monika Bardhan of Malaysia’s NCI Cancer Hospital told The Associated Press.
She said too many people first go to traditional healers and pay exorbitant prices for concoctions with unproven ingredients. By the time they come to the hospital, it is often too late to treat them.
Bardhan said she is not against traditional medicine as long as patients are educated about what they are receiving and the doctors or healers are legitimate.
Mok said some hospitals in China were using both traditional and Western medicines — herbs and chemotherapy, or acupuncture and modern diagnostic imaging, for example — but more needed to be done to integrate the methods.
A key factor in the integration would be convincing users of traditional medicine that modern science is as good as or better than their centuries-old methods.
A 2004 study in China showed that 49% of women who were being treated for breast cancer with traditional Chinese medicine believed it to be an effective treatment for their disease.
Mok also referred to a Chinese trial he was involved in this year in which some prospective patients declined to be part of a placebo control study to test the effectiveness of a traditional medicine when they learned their chances of getting the medicine were only 50-50. They preferred to go to a traditional doctor who would definitely prescribe the treatment they sought.
chinese medicineMassage, acupuncutre ease pain after cancer surgery
UCSF News - Massage and acupuncture are effective in decreasing pain and depression following surgery in cancer patients, according to a UCSF study.
The findings of the randomized controlled clinical trial are reported in the March 2007 issue of the “Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.” Read more
TCM use very common, but patients seldom tell western physicians
CM NEWS - Almost all Chinese immigrants surveyed in a US study have used some forms of traditional Chinese medicine, but seldom would they communicate with their western medicine doctors about their TCM use.
The study was done at the Center for Education in Family and Community Medicine, Stanford University. According to the researchers, Chinese immigrants constitute the largest group of foreign-born Asians living in the United States. But knowledge of their use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is limited. A survey was conducted to determine their TCM use and to evaluate physician awareness of these practices.
In the study, structured interviews were conducted with 198 Chinese immigrant patients, and a survey was administered to 17 physicians in two federally funded community health clinics.
The results showed that nearly 100% of the patients had used TCM during the previous year, mostly for musculoskeletal or abdominal pain, fatigue, and health maintenance. Self-medication with herbal products was the most common (93% at least once, 43% weekly). A smaller number (23%) had used herbs prescribed by a TCM provider.
Use of acupuncture was less common (14%), although higher than the national average.
Most patients indicated a preference to consult Western physicians for acute infections. Only 5% reported that their physicians had ever asked about their use of TCM. By contrast, 77% of physicians reported that they “usually or sometimes” asked about TCM use.
These results suggest that these patients used TCM, primarily self-prescribed over-the-counter herbal preparations, for many health problems. Information about use was not shared with their physicians, nor did patients perceive their doctors as soliciting sufficient information on TCM use.
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