An Empirical Formula by Dr. Ling Yunpeng for Treating Melanoma

In his work Linzhen Yide Lu (Records of Clinical Experience, People's Medical Publishing House, 2006, 1st ed., p. 15), the senior physician Ling Yunpeng recorded a small empirical formula he used for a melanoma patient: Huangyaozi (Discorea bulbifera bulb), Xiakucao (Prunella spike), and Huainiuxi (Achyranthes root), each 12 g, decocted three times daily and taken between meals (i.e., after meals).

This patient came to Dr. Ling in the summer of 1975. After writing this formula, Dr. Ling had the patient keep taking it for about half a year. Before treatment, the melanoma on the patient's left thigh had ulcerated and metastasized; after more than ten days of medication, the thigh swelling subsided and pain stopped, and after about half a year the condition improved markedly. The patient did not relapse until 1978 and died that autumn. For late-stage melanoma to survive over three years on such a simple formula is truly remarkable.

Dr. Ling considered that in this formula Huangyaozi disperses swelling and softens hard masses, moves qi and unblocks collaterals, and anticarcinogenically resolves tumors. So he used Huangyaozi as the chief, combined with Prunella spike to drain fire and dissipate swelling, and Achyranthes to guide the herbs downward (the patient's melanoma was on the left thigh), composing a very simple melanoma formula that nonetheless achieved good results. This shows how ingenious Dr. Ling's formula construction was.

Huangyaozi in this formula is the tuber of Dioscorea bulbifera (family Dioscoreaceae). TCM holds that Huangyaozi dissipates nodules and goiter, clears heat and resolves toxin, and cools blood to stop bleeding; it treats goiter and tumors, throat impediment, welling-abscesses and sores, snakebite, tumors, vomiting blood, epistaxis, hemoptysis, whooping cough, and lung-heat cough and wheezing. I previously wrote an article "The Anticancer Effect and Toxic Side Effects of the Chinese Herb Huangyaozi" introducing it; readers who want details can click the title link above, so I will not repeat them here.

Note that Huangyaozi is hepatotoxic. Animal experiments show that mice given Huangyaozi water decoction by gastric gavage at 10-19.9 g/kg daily for 14 and 21 consecutive days showed obvious liver-tissue damage on pathological sections. So patients with poor liver function should use Huangyaozi cautiously, first restoring liver function with medication. In addition, Huangyaozi has a very high iodine content; patients with hypothyroidism due to excess iodine should use it cautiously, as should other patients whose physicians require iodine restriction.

Prunella spike (Xiakucao) is also a commonly used TCM herb for dissipating nodules and swelling; it is the fruiting spike of Prunella vulgaris or Prunella asiatica (family Lamiaceae), clearing liver fire and brightening the eyes, and dissipating nodules and resolving toxin. TCM mainly uses it for red, light-sensitive eyes, eye pain, headache and dizziness, tinnitus, scrofula, goiter, breast welling-abscess, acute and chronic hepatitis, and hypertension. Ursolic acid and its derivatives in Prunella have significant cytotoxicity against P388 and L1210 cells and human lung tumor A-549 cells, so it has anticancer effects.

Achyranthes (Niuxi) is the root of Achyranthes bidentata (family Amaranthaceae). TCM holds that it expels stasis and unblocks menstruation, tonifies liver and kidney, strengthens sinew and bone, promotes diuresis and unblocks lin, and guides blood downward. It is also a commonly used TCM "guiding herb" (yaoyin), directing medication downward, and is often used as a guide when treating diseases of the lower body.

So Dr. Ling's folk formula for this thigh melanoma patient, though simple in composition, is an ingenious application whether viewed from the TCM formula-construction logic or from modern pharmacology. Moreover, the formula is very cheap, truly embodying TCM's characteristics of simplicity, convenience, low cost, and efficacy.