Health & Medicine
Chinese and Western Medicines Together Offer Hope for New Cancer Treatments
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Sep 28, 2013 07:23 AM EDT
Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) when combined with certain western medicines offer new hope for developing novel treatments for curing cancer.
In a study led by experts from Cardiff University's School of Medicine in collaboration with Peking University, China, researchers are testing the health benefits of Chinese herbal medicines in combination with Western medicines for developing novel treatments to cure liver, colorectal, lung cancer and osteosarcoma of the bones.
Apart from this, the team is also examining whether giving these medicines along with chemotherapy improves the outcome of the patients.
"Although a few successes, most of the traditional remedies are short of scientific explanation which has inevitably led to scepticism - especially amongst traditionalists in the West. As a result, we set out to test the success of a Chinese medicine and then consider how combining it alongside traditional methods like Chemotherapy could result in positive outcome for patients," said Professor Jiang who led the research as part of a collaboration between Cardiff University and Peking University.
This research is led by Professor Wen Jiang from Cardiff University's School of Medicine, who is the director of the Cardiff University-Peking University Joint Cancer Institute.
For this study the researcher looked at 'Yangzheng Xiaoji' that is a Chinese formula that consists of 14 herbs. Studies have shown that this formula is beneficial to cancer patients. But how this formula works has remained a mystery till date.
The team started looking in to the ways this formula works in 2012 and discovered that it blocks a pathway that curbs the spread of cancer cells in the body.
"The formula has been shown to be beneficial to patients with certain solid tumours, when used alone and in conventional therapies, such as Chemotherapy. It suggests that combining the formula with conventional as well as new therapies could hold the key to developing new treatments for cancer patients," the researchers explained.
Traditional Chinese medicines are an ancient practice in China, Korea, Japan and Asia, that includes herbal remedies, massage therapy and acupuncture. The compounds of these medicines are taken from natural products or herbs. A previous study conducted by researchers in Australia and a Chinese University stated that Chinese Herbal medicines offer significant treatment for most types of cancers including breast cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death in China followed by strokes. The widely used western cancer therapies like radiation are used in China but looking at the side effects they cause most of the researchers are now working on using traditional Chinese herbal medicines to cure these diseases.
The results will be presented at the European Cancer Congress 2013, Amsterdam.
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First Posted: Sep 28, 2013 07:23 AM EDT
Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) when combined with certain western medicines offer new hope for developing novel treatments for curing cancer.
In a study led by experts from Cardiff University's School of Medicine in collaboration with Peking University, China, researchers are testing the health benefits of Chinese herbal medicines in combination with Western medicines for developing novel treatments to cure liver, colorectal, lung cancer and osteosarcoma of the bones.
Apart from this, the team is also examining whether giving these medicines along with chemotherapy improves the outcome of the patients.
"Although a few successes, most of the traditional remedies are short of scientific explanation which has inevitably led to scepticism - especially amongst traditionalists in the West. As a result, we set out to test the success of a Chinese medicine and then consider how combining it alongside traditional methods like Chemotherapy could result in positive outcome for patients," said Professor Jiang who led the research as part of a collaboration between Cardiff University and Peking University.
This research is led by Professor Wen Jiang from Cardiff University's School of Medicine, who is the director of the Cardiff University-Peking University Joint Cancer Institute.
For this study the researcher looked at 'Yangzheng Xiaoji' that is a Chinese formula that consists of 14 herbs. Studies have shown that this formula is beneficial to cancer patients. But how this formula works has remained a mystery till date.
The team started looking in to the ways this formula works in 2012 and discovered that it blocks a pathway that curbs the spread of cancer cells in the body.
"The formula has been shown to be beneficial to patients with certain solid tumours, when used alone and in conventional therapies, such as Chemotherapy. It suggests that combining the formula with conventional as well as new therapies could hold the key to developing new treatments for cancer patients," the researchers explained.
Traditional Chinese medicines are an ancient practice in China, Korea, Japan and Asia, that includes herbal remedies, massage therapy and acupuncture. The compounds of these medicines are taken from natural products or herbs. A previous study conducted by researchers in Australia and a Chinese University stated that Chinese Herbal medicines offer significant treatment for most types of cancers including breast cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death in China followed by strokes. The widely used western cancer therapies like radiation are used in China but looking at the side effects they cause most of the researchers are now working on using traditional Chinese herbal medicines to cure these diseases.
The results will be presented at the European Cancer Congress 2013, Amsterdam.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone