Can Tumors Shrink Rapidly—or Even Disappear—With Chinese Medicine?

While reading the Waike Zhengzhi Quansheng Ji (Treatise on Surgical Patterns of the Quansheng School), I came across the author Wang Hongxu's entry on "ruyan" (breast rock, i.e., today's breast cancer), in which he mentions that treating ruyan with Xihuang Wan often brought about a cure within half a month. At first I found this unbelievable and even doubted whether his case records were true. But recent clinical practice has slowly changed my view.

First, there was Dr. Li's lymphoma: after taking seven doses of Yanghe Tang, together with Xihuang Wan (two vials each night before bed), on and off for less than a month, her systemic lymphoma clearly shrank. My own mother, during her earlier treatment, was given Xihuang Wan alongside decoctions—at that time a single dose of one vial—and after about three months of treatment her tumor began to shrink noticeably. But because at that stage I did not address her liver lesions, the eventual liver metastasis progressed rapidly.

Recently, a 42-year-old breast-cancer patient living near me was treated with Shiliu Liuqi Yin plus Xihuang Wan; I pushed Xihuang Wan as high as four vials (12g) at a time. In less than two months the tumor had basically disappeared completely. I consider this patient likely cured, but it is too early to conclude; I need to observe her subsequent survival. Because my own mother died when one tumor had disappeared and another had shrunk by two-thirds while the liver tumor grew larger, one cannot lightly conclude that a tumor's disappearance equals a cancer cure.

For both patients I am urging them to get contrast-enhanced CT to determine whether the tumors are still present. But the more precise PET-CT is too expensive—over ten thousand yuan per scan. The breast-cancer patient needs to return to her hometown for it to be reimbursed. Dr. Li may get a CT after she finishes the prescription I most recently gave her, to confirm the effect.

A patient from Baoding, Hebei, whom I treated about a year ago, underwent surgery after taking decoctions alone for roughly a year; at surgery the tumor was found to have not metastasized. However, this patient had also received Western chemotherapy before taking Chinese herbs, so it is hard to judge whether the sustained result was due to herbs alone. Nonetheless, when taking the decoctions the patient improved dramatically: after the very first dose his clinical symptoms vanished, and after about ten doses he was able to do normal farm labor.

This built the patient's confidence in herbal treatment; previously, after other Chinese practitioners had failed him, he had been uncertain whether Chinese medicine could treat his disease. He did not take Xihuang Wan during the decoction phase, mainly because at the time I was unsure of the Quansheng school's Xihuang Wan efficacy and the patient's family was poor, so I did not recommend it. Sometimes I now wonder whether I should have had him take Xihuang Wan in large doses, because based on my own experience with Xihuang Wan, the antral gastric cancer he had responds well to it. Regrettably, the patient interrupted Chinese treatment long ago—both because my own faith in Chinese medicine at one point collapsed, and because, unaware of his condition and feeling well, he refused to continue.

These cases have made me reflect on herbal dosage and efficacy. I had previously written a blog post about Xihuang Wan dosage, but it lacked clinical data. Recently I have begun trying large doses of Xihuang Wan on several patients. Another lung-cancer patient in my circle is also trying it; having taken only three doses, we cannot yet say whether it will rapidly shrink his tumor, though his clinical symptoms have clearly improved. He had previously been treated with poor results by an expert at Guang'anmen Hospital; after taking my prescription he improved markedly, and as a result he has decided to come to Beijing soon for closer treatment. I strongly suspect he, like the previous two patients, may rapidly shrink his tumor, because his sensitivity to the herbs was evident from the very first dose. As for another breast-cancer patient with multiple metastases who has already survived nearly ten years, I am also considering working out a base formula for her and then using high-dose Xihuang Wan to observe the clinical effect. I hope more patients will try departing from the customary Xihuang Wan dose; perhaps still better results can be obtained.

From the Xihuang Wan dosage Wang Hongxu recorded in the Waike Zhengzhi Quansheng Ji, his common dose was what today is 12g, whereas contemporary Chinese clinicians commonly use only 3g per dose. I previously used Jisheng Shenqi Wan for ascites: when I cut the clinical dose in half it was ineffective, but at the maximum dose it worked. I now use Jisheng Shenqi Wan on several patients with pleural or peritoneal effusion; apart from one who did poorly, all improved markedly. One lung-cancer patient whose limb swelling resulted from pleural effusion had failed to respond to thoracentesis and multiple Chinese and Western experts; after I used high-dose Jisheng Shenqi Wan for about two months, the pleural fluid decreased and the leg swelling disappeared. Clearly, dosage exerts a huge influence on efficacy.

Could insufficient dosage be the fundamental reason Xihuang Wan underperforms clinically in treating cancer? I now suspect it is. Some of the patients I am currently seeing are suited to Xihuang Wan, and I am expanding the use of high-dose Xihuang Wan to achieve the ideal anti-tumor effect.

I had also previously believed that Chinese medicine takes a very long time to work in treating terminal disease. But after this period of clinical observation I realized that Chinese medicine can sometimes eliminate tumors quite quickly.

If Chinese medicine in treating cancer remains stuck on the word "slow," it will be hard to achieve results. Once cancer reaches a certain stage, if it cannot be rapidly contained, the opportunity may be lost. When using proven anti-cancer medicines such as Xihuang Wan, one should start from a small dose—perhaps 3g at a time—and gradually increase up to the maximum of 12g, while actively arranging examinations to assess efficacy.

Originally written October 15, 2012.