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submissions to | Home > Newsletters > January 2008 > Chinese Medicine and Cancer Care |
Chinese Medicine and Cancer Care |
 By Efrem Korngold, LAc, OMD and Harriet Beinfield, LAcEvery medicine emerges out of the interaction between biology and culture. Medical practices are the product of a social, political, and economic milieu, shaped by customary habits and traditions, many having little to do with science, evidence, or even medicine itself.1 Chinese traditional medicine has been shaped through continuous use by what is now one-quarter of the world’s population. For more than 23 centuries, the people of China have used it to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease as well as to foster health. In modern Western medicine, the mechanistic, quantitative constructs of science prevail, whereas in the traditional medicine of China, organismic,2 qualitative schemata describe individuals as resilient, dynamic ecosystems. Whereas the focus of medical science is upon the pathologic entity, Chinese traditional medicine draws upon a nature-centered cosmology that emphasizes the relationship between the seed and the soil: what is it about the terrain that permits cancer, or any disease, to take root? Since the time of its origins 3,000 years ago, Chinese medicine (Zhong Yi) has been used for the treatment of tumors, identified in antiquity as liu yan, meaning lumps as hard as a rock, or as zhong yang, meaning inflamed ulcers. Over the course of these millennia, various strategies have developed, ranging from:
In 1999, a San Francisco population-based
study indicated that 72% of women with breast cancer used at least 1
form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM).3 While
few abandoned conventional treatment, only half reported the use of CAM
to their physicians.4 An understanding and appreciation of
Chinese medicine may lead to greater comfort on the part of providers
ill at ease with the use of therapies about which they have neither
training nor experience. This in turn may lead to Because Chinese medicine appears to protect against the damaging effects of chemotherapy and radiation, it increases the likelihood that patients will suffer less during, and recover their health after completing these therapies, enhancing quality of life. Chinese medicine treats the patient as well as the disease. There are various approaches to the
subject of how Chinese medicine treats cancer, and an equivalent number
of languages— one expresses how Chinese medicine understands the body
and thinks about what we call cancer, using its own traditional
vocabulary that has endured over centuries; another is scientific,
reporting research findings on the use of acupuncture and Chinese herbal
medicine, describing them in modern neurophysiological and biochemical
terms. Derived from the word malign, meaning harmful or malevolent, malignant means that which may cause mortal damage. In Chinese medicine, mortal damage is a consequence of the disorganization and separation of yin-yang (jing-shen, blood-qi)—a threshold beyond which the organism is unable to sustain harmony and integrity. Cancerous masses, lumps, and tumors are the consequence of unmitigated accumulations of qi, moisture, and blood that have become toxic, transforming what is healthy into morbid tissue, simultaneously obstructing and usurping normal circulation. Prolonged stagnation eventually leads to depletion of qi and blood, and ultimately essence. Because essence governs growth and maturation, loss of or damage to it can result in a disregulation of growth typical of cancer, a process of uncontrolled proliferation of immature, undifferentiated, malformed cells. Therefore, treatment that supplements qi, moisture, and blood; restores circulation and eliminates stasis; removes toxins; replenishes essence; and dissolves masses is critical in the treatment of cancer. As early as the 11th century BCE,
descriptions of tumors were inscribed on oracle bones and turtle shells.
Certain doctors specialized in the treatment of these lesions, referred
to as liu, meaning tumor, derived from a word meaning stuck.
Around 200 BCE, during the Han Dynasty, tumors became known as hard
lumps or ulcerated lesions. Both benign and malignant masses were
further differentiated anatomically as ulcers or abscesses that arise
between the muscle and bone (yen, ai, chu); carbuncles (yung)
that appear on the surface of muscles and skin; and hard obstructions
(cheng chia) that arise in the internal organs. In the Classical and modern writings regard the
etiology of most serious disorders, including benign and malignant
tumors, as stemming from internal injuries, emotional trauma, invasion
of pathogenic factors such as heat, cold, dampness, dryness, or
the accumulation of toxins, often due to improper digestion and
poor elimination of metabolic wastes. Jia Kun, a Chinese traditional
medicine oncologist writing in 1980, says that whatever upsets normal
body function can lead to tumor formation, causing cancer. Tumors are
the end result of a prolonged process of accumulation and densification
of tissue due to the persistent stagnation |
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