The Discoverer of Arsenic for Treating Leukemia Awarded the Qiushi Prize
Arsenic (pi shuang) has, since ancient times, been a toxin-attacking-with-toxin drug used in TCM clinical practice. The contemporary clinician Zhang Tingdong introduced it into the treatment of leukemia. Professor Zhang Tingdong is the founder of using arsenic to treat leukemia, and his achievement is one of the few achievements of China in single-compound chemical drugs that has received worldwide recognition. His invention has spread worldwide; at present, arsenic has become one of the standard drugs for treating acute promyelocytic leukemia.
Arsenic's scientific name is arsenic trioxide; it is highly toxic. In ancient Chinese novels, arsenic often appears as the poison used to murder someone; in Water Margin, Wu Dalang was poisoned to death by Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing with arsenic. Arsenic is a natural compound discovered by ancient alchemists; it belongs to the mineral section of Chinese materia medica and has the action of eroding sores, dissipating tumors, and killing parasites. Since ancient times it has mostly been used to treat malignant tumors, stubborn psoriasis, and other diseases. But because of medication safety issues, contemporary pharmacopoeias have basically banned the use of arsenic; only some specialized medical institutions may use arsenic as a drug.
The former Minister of Health Chen Zhu was also a master at using arsenic to treat leukemia. One very important reason Sun Bingyan's cancer results were so high was that Sun Bingyan dared to use highly toxic drugs such as arsenic. For these highly toxic drugs, Sun Bingyan even personally tasted them to test a safe dose. According to Shengdi Meiya on Sina Blog, who was treated for cancer by Sun Bingyan, when he was treated by Sun the drugs were so toxic that he became swollen all over and was nearly poisoned to death. One can see that Sun Bingyan, in treating cancer, was bold yet careful and dared to use poisons.
Arsenic can treat not only leukemia. I have seen lung-cancer patients treated by the arsenic fumigation-inhalation method: the patient buys arsenic himself, heats it on a tile, inhales the smoke produced by the heated arsenic, and then takes an internal medicine containing croton cream to attack the tumor. Its efficacy was even better than chemotherapy, while the toxicity was within a controllable range. Some hospitals have also carried out research on arsenic therapy for liver cancer, and the arsenic compound used is precisely arsenic.
If TCM cancer treatment is to achieve good results, fighting poison with poison is unavoidable. However, when using drugs such as arsenic, one must pay close attention to medication safety.