The Ling Yunpeng Father and Son's Experience in Treating Breast Cancer
The Ling family had practiced medicine for generations, specializing in external medicine. Both Ling Yunpeng and his late father treated breast cancer. In his book Zhenyu Yide Lu, Ling Yunpeng introduces his own experience in treating breast cancer and also recounts a case treated by his father.
Ling Yunpeng relates that in 1977, an elderly woman in her seventies brought a prescription his late father had written for her many years before, asking Ling Yunpeng to identify the handwriting and copy it out again; the prescription had been mounted in several layers of paper and the characters had become very blurred.
This patient had developed breast cancer in 1946 and sought treatment from Ling Yunpeng's father. At the time the elder Ling was himself unwell, but he wrote a prescription, telling her to take it long-term until the tumor shrank and the pulling pain ceased. The elder Ling also told the patient that the disease would surely recur, so he asked her to keep the prescription for life; whenever it recurred, she should fill the prescription and take it, which would extend her life.
For more than 30 years the patient took no other treatment, relying on this prescription of the elder Ling's to control her condition. She had taken it dozens of times, each time using as few as five or six doses and as many as twenty or thirty. Later, because of the passage of time and the aging of the paper, the prescription became illegible and the pharmacy could not make it out and refused to fill it. So she came to Ling Yunpeng, asking him to identify his father's handwriting and recopy the prescription. Ling Yunpeng was very familiar with his father's hand and could still make it out.
The formula is as follows: Sharenqiao (cardamom shell) 6g, Doukouqiao (round cardamom shell) 6g, Chao Dangguishen (fried Angelica body) 9g, Jiao Shanzhi (charred Gardenia) 12g, Huoxianggeng (patchouli stem) 9g, Yunfuling (Poria) 12g, Chao Juhe (fried tangerine seed) 12g, Chao Baishao (fried white Paeonia) 9g, Sugeng (Perilla stem) 6g, Jiao Liushenqu (charred medicated leaven) 12g, Gengtong (Aeschynomene stem) 2g, plus six flowers of Daidaohua (bitter orange flower).
This is an unremarkable formula, made almost entirely of herbs that move qi and resolve stagnation; only Gengtong is an uncommon Chinese medicine. Gengtong, also called Gengtongcao, Baigengtong, yetongcao, Qitongcao, or Shuitongcao, is the woody part of the stem of Aeschynomene indica, a plant of the pea family. It is a commonly used folk herb that most Chinese pharmacies do not stock.
Gengtong clears heat, drains dampness, promotes urination, and promotes lactation. It is indicated for edema, heat stranguria, thirst in febrile disease, scanty dark painful urination, and insufficient lactation. Gengtong is an effective herb for breast diseases; using it for breast cancer treats the condition symptomatically.
The elder Ling's formula was derived by modifying Danggui Shaoyao San from Jingui Yaolue (made of Angelica, Paeonia, Atractylodes, Poria, Ligusticum, and Alisma). Danggui Shaoyao San treats abdominal spasms, dizziness and palpitations, or lower-limb edema and difficult urination in women due to dual deficiency of the liver and spleen during pregnancy or menstruation.
The elder Ling removed the blood-invigorating Ligusticum, the spleen-fortifying Atractylodes, and the water-draining Alisma from Danggui Shaoyao San, and added qi-moving and nodule-dissipating Sharenqiao, Doukouqiao, Huoxianggeng, Chao Juhe, and Sugeng; the formula's action thus shifted to moving qi, dissipating nodules, and stopping pain. So although this prescription looks plain, it is indeed effective for the swelling and pain caused by breast tumors. It treats not only breast cancer but also various benign tumors such as breast fibroadenoma.
For many years Ling Yunpeng himself treated breast cancer basically by following the method of moving qi and resolving stagnation, using modifications of Xiaoyao San (made of Bupleurum, Atractylodes, Angelica, Poria, honey-fried Glycyrrhiza, and Paeonia), combined with external application of Xiaoke San. By his own account, this method has a certain effect on early- and middle-stage breast tumors, but little effect on advanced patients with large tumors.
The Xiaoke San formula is as follows: Rougui (cinnamon bark) 90g; Shannai (Kaempferia), Gongdingxiang (clove), Xixin (Asarum), Sheng Banxia (raw Pinellia), Zhi Ruxiang (processed Boswellia), and Jianghuang (Turmeric), each 15g. Grind into a fine powder, mix well, and store sealed. When needed, blend it into Xiaosan Gao and apply to the affected area, changing every five days. For ordinary hard lumps, blending commercial Wanying Gao with Xiaoke San is also effective.
Ling Yunpeng did not publish case records of his breast-cancer treatments, but his works record a case of a benign breast tumor in a patient surnamed Yu; from this case one can see Ling Yunpeng's approach to breast tumors.
The internal formula Ling Yunpeng used for this patient was: Chao Chaihu (fried Bupleurum) 2g, Chao Danggui (fried Angelica) 9g, Xiakucao (Selfheal) 12g, Chao Baizhu (fried Atractylodes) 6g, Baishao (white Paeonia) 6g, Baifuling (white Poria) 12g, Bailili (Tribulus terrestris) 9g, Qingpi (green tangerine peel) 9g, Guang Yujin (Curcuma) 6g, Chao Zhiqiao (fried Bitter Orange) 9g, and Chao Jiangcan (fried white stiff silkworm) 9g. On the second and third visits, only Duan Muli (calcined oyster shell) 12g was added. Externally, Xiaosan Gao and Xiaoke Gao were applied; after adhering to this regimen for more than two months, the patient recovered.
The preparation method of the Xiaosan Gao mentioned in this article and used by Ling Yunpeng is as follows: Zhifengfang (honey-fried wasp nest) 120g, Gongdingxiang (clove) 60g, Bibo (long pepper) 60g, Xixin (Asarum) 60g, Zhi Ruxiang (processed Boswellia) 90g, and Zhi Moyao (processed Commiphora) 90g; grind all into a fine powder. Take 500g of commercial Taiyi Gao, melt it over heat, add 50g of the above fine powder, and mix well to obtain Xiaosan Gao.