An Introduction to the Cancer-Treating Thought of Sun Bingyan, a Master of TCM Oncology

Sun Bingyan (1920– ) was a native of Shandong, born into three generations of TCM practitioners. He practiced medicine in Korea for more than ten years, returned to China in 1953, and from 1957 devoted himself to the research and treatment of malignant tumors. He was renowned throughout his life for treating cancer, especially gastric, esophageal, bladder, and ovarian cancer. He cured more than 700 cancer patients in his lifetime, and many of those he treated survived with their tumors for a long time. Tianjin health authorities once organized a sampling investigation of patients treated by Sun and found that his cancer treatment was indeed remarkably effective.

Among contemporary masters of cancer treatment, Sun Bingyan's results stand out; one might even say he is the foremost TCM master of cancer treatment. Unfortunately, because his methods were too bold and risky, Sun's cancer philosophy is now held in low regard. What currently prevails in TCM circles is the "clear and dissipate" (qing-xiao) cancer philosophy especially promoted by the Guang'anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Of every ten cancer prescriptions one sees in the clinic, roughly seven can be classified under this philosophy.

"Clear and dissipate" cancer treatment is steady and safe, highly suited to an era of frequent doctor–patient disputes. But based on my observation over more than a year of the outcomes of one or two hundred cancer patients receiving TCM, "clear and dissipate" treatment can indeed prolong life modestly; to achieve cure, however, it falls far short of Sun Bingyan's approach of "acrid-hot dispersal of stasis and attacking toxin with toxin." Moreover, the "clear and dissipate" course is too long, often pushing patients' tolerance of Chinese herbs to its limit, and many patients eventually refuse to take them. Two patients I treated myself, because they had taken herbs for too long, would now rather die than take Chinese medicine again.

Contemporary physicians generally hold that cancer is caused by "fire, phlegm, stasis, and toxin." Sun Bingyan held that the causes most often seen are "cold, stasis, phlegm, and toxin." Clinically, he therefore emphasized the method of "acrid-hot dispersion of stasis and fighting poison with poison." He commonly used strongly acrid and yang-activating, stasis-dispersing herbs that many doctors today fear to prescribe—Guizhi (Cinnamon Twig), Fuzi (Aconite), Ganjiang (Dried Ginger), Paojiang (Dry-fried Ginger), Gaoliangjiang (Lesser Galangal), and Rougui (Cinnamon Bark). For purgation he favored Qi-dispersing, accumulation-resolving herbs such as Badou (Croton), Qianniuzi (Morning Glory Seed), Dahuang (Rhubarb), Mangxiao (Mirabilite), and Binglang (Areca), and he directly struck tumors with toxin-attacking poisons such as Pishuang (Arsenic), mercury, and Danfan (Chalcanthite).

In Sun's case records it is common to see patients develop oral ulcers from the medication, with very obvious side effects. According to "Shengdi Meiya," a cancer patient friend from the Sina cancer community who was treated by Sun, when he was under Sun's care he became swollen all over his body from the treatment. According to Shengdi Meiya, many of Sun's patients deteriorated under his treatment; one can see that this old master's cancer treatment was extraordinarily harsh.

Yet after two months of treatment, Shengdi Meiya—already in late-stage cancer at the time—remained well for the next sixteen years, until the cancer recurred sixteen years later. By then Old Master Sun had already passed away, and Brother Sheng, having no other choice, studied TCM oncology on his own and treated himself. Despite widespread metastasis, he remains unharmed to this day, still energetically promoting TCM in the Sina cancer community. His stamina, spirit, and courage are deeply admirable.

Sun Bingyan was bold yet meticulous and persevering. Before using highly toxic herbs such as arsenic on patients, he personally tasted them himself to determine a safe dose. This spirit of sacrificing himself for others is truly a model for the medical world. A descendant of generations of TCM practitioners, he was vastly experienced, exceptionally bright, and widely read. Reading his medical essays is deeply convincing; he had studied nearly all the TCM classics, ancient and modern. It was precisely this profound foundation, combined with boldness, care, and a refusal to stick to rigid rules, that made his results so outstanding. Judged by the number of cancer patients cured in a lifetime, I suspect few physicians, Chinese or Western, would not blush before him.

Sun Bingyan had several distinctive features in treating cancer.

First, although he was a TCM doctor, he required tumor patients to be hospitalized so that he could observe them at close hand. He did not, like ordinary TCM doctors today, consider his job done after writing the prescription and sending the patient home with the herbs, with the side effects after dosing left unrecorded. Only after the patient was stable would Sun let them take medicine home for follow-up treatment.

Second, in diagnosis, beyond the traditional four examinations, he added the diagnostic method of "three imprints, two palpations, and one spot": observing the imprints of the nails, of the teeth on the tongue, and of the teeth on the cheeks; palpating the stomach and umbilical regions; palpating nodules on the auricle; and observing white spots on the skin. Based on these objective signs outside the four examinations, Sun decided his treatment plan. I tried several of Sun's diagnostic methods on patients I could reach and found two patients with auricular nodules, and two patients whose nails not only had defective lunulae but were also brittle and splitting (different from onychomycosis; my mother had this on her thumbnail, and another gynecologic tumor patient had shown this phenomenon years before falling ill). Sun's original discoveries have real clinical value.

Third, Sun emphasized the use of acrid-hot cold-dispersing and purgative methods. In his case records, almost every patient's formula relied on strongly acrid and hot herbs. Drawing on the idea in the Huangdi Neijing that "cold causes congealing and sluggish flow of blood," he held that the great majority of tumors arise from deficiency-cold. He used strongly acrid and hot herbs to fiercely attack cold-phlegm, assisted by purgation or emesis, so as to drive the tumor out of the body.

Nowadays, prescriptions written according to Sun Bingyan's philosophy would not be filled by a pharmacy, and hospital doctors would frown heavily when transferring them. Because the currently prevailing concept is "clear and dissipate"—clearing heat and resolving toxin, dissipating phlegm and scattering nodulation—such prescriptions are very popular. Doctors like to prescribe them because current textbooks mostly center on them, and some patients and their families, having absorbed the ideas in those textbooks, also welcome such prescriptions and feel confident. But from my own observation, cures achieved by this method are not common.

This shackle is the sorrow of patients and of doctors alike. Professor Fang Mingqian's results were outstanding (in Beijing I once met elderly people who spoke of him with unreserved admiration, because they had benefited from him in their day). But when his disciples compiled his medical experience, they specifically warned that his herbs were harsh, and that many had since been found to be seriously toxic. They cautioned today's doctors to be careful when referring to them, to avoid using them, lest their own professional lives be jeopardized.

It is precisely this climate that has led to so few doctors today daring to try Sun Bingyan's cancer approach.