Some Reflections on TCM Treatment of Pediatric Solid Tumors (2) — Insights from Zhou Zhiyuan's TCM Anti-Cancer Research

Most tumor children who come to TCM for treatment have already been through various Western treatments, and their physical condition is very poor.

Intractable recurrent anemia and radiation inflammation after radiotherapy, and bodily weakness after chemotherapy, make these children look precarious. Many parents seek TCM only to regulate the body; some even frankly say they know the situation is now beyond help and only hope to reduce the child's suffering as much as possible. They expect TCM to provide hospice care for the child.

But as a TCM doctor whose main work is treating tumors, few people are willing to do only hospice care. Because hospice care often means the doctor must deny his own mission and turn himself into a pure caregiver—a hard thing to accept.

To date, I have encountered only one neuroblastoma child who had not received any Western treatment. This is a neuroblastoma child from Tangshan, Hebei; since diagnosis, she has been maintained on TCM for nearly ten years. Overall, this child's quality of life is among the best I have seen in neuroblastoma children. Of course, her tumor is also not controlled and has been slowly growing; now her parents, seeking better efficacy, have begun bringing her to me for TCM treatment.

Most tumor-children's parents do not have the psychological resilience of this child's parents; they dare not give up any Western treatment opportunity. Even when they seek TCM help, they expect to continue Western treatment at the same time. In decisions about tumor treatment, the doctor can only obey the patient and family.

So TCM treatment of pediatric tumors faces many problems that ancient physicians treating pediatric diseases never faced. The side effects of chemoradiotherapy, and some lifelong aftereffects, all require TCM participation to resolve.

So my personal feeling is that for tumor children, the treatment of supporting righteous qi and firming the root must be maintained from start to finish. As the late National Medical Master Professor He Ren summarized, treating such cancer patients requires "continuously supporting righteous qi, expelling pathogen at the opportune time, and treating according to the pattern." The doctor must provide nanny-style treatment, constantly monitoring the child's physical changes and adjusting the treatment plan at any time. Treatment should focus on supporting righteous qi and firming the root, with expelling pathogen as auxiliary; one must adjust the TCM adjuvant treatment at any time according to changes in the child's Western treatment plan. After the child finishes Western treatment, TCM treatment should become the mainstay.

Treatment to supplement qi and blood in tumor children must be persistent. The blood counts of tumor children who have been through Western treatment often drop below normal; especially in children who have had radiotherapy, recurrent anemia may be lifelong. Even if TCM methods to supplement qi and blood are continually used, there will be fluctuations along the way, and each fluctuation makes the child's family anxious.

Raw Huangqi (Astragalus), Danggui (Angelica), Dangshen (Codonopsis), Renshen (ginseng), Xiyangshen (American ginseng), Shudi (processed Rehmannia), Nüzhenzi (Ligustrum), Mohanlian (Eclipta), Ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin), Lujiaojiao (deerhorn gelatin), Guiban (turtle shell), Huangjing (Polygonatum), Zhi Shouwu (processed Polygonum multiflorum), Gouji (Cibotium), Shayuanzi (Astragalus complanatus), Tusizi (Cuscuta)—these herbs that supplement qi and blood and fill essence and marrow are ones I frequently use in these children.

Shiquan Dabu Tang granules, Shenqi Shiyiwei granules, Zhenqi Fuzheng granules, Bazhen Tang granules, Liuwei Dihuang Wan, Jinkui Shenqi Wan, Erzhi Wan, and other patent medicines are also useful during and for a long time after chemoradiotherapy. Baoyuan Tang, Huangqi Buxue Tang, Guipi Tang, Buzhong Yiqi Tang, and other decoctions are also indispensable root-firming formulas for the child.

Some severe children have no possibility of cure whether by surgery or chemoradiotherapy; after a period of symptom-free survival, the child often suddenly recurs because of fever or pain. Generally speaking, each recurrence raises the difficulty of treatment one level. If the child can start TCM treatment early, it is very necessary, while supporting righteous qi and firming the root, to take a certain degree of pathogen-expelling treatment according to the child's physical condition.

The remission period after chemoradiotherapy in most children is very short; not long after chemoradiotherapy, metastasis and recurrence appear. So one need not wait until a solid tumor is visible to start pathogen-expelling means; from the very beginning, one should use TCM blood-activating, swelling-reducing, phlegm-dissolving, mass-resolving, and poison-attacking herbs to control the progression of residual cancer cells in the child's body. Do not fantasize that some health supplement raising immunity can resist cancer progression. Using pathogen-expelling herbs to induce cancer-cell apoptosis and inhibit tumor angiogenesis is the fundamental strategy.

It is just that in the process of expelling pathogen, one must rationally coordinate with the root-firming regimen. I have seen many families of children, hearing in patient groups that some patent medicine or folk remedy is effective against cancer, self-medicate, and tragedies often occur.

Because some herbs are typical pathogen-expelling herbs; when a regular TCM doctor treats, he uses these herbs only as part of the overall treatment, not as the whole. While expelling pathogen, he simultaneously considers supporting righteous qi. But when patients or families self-medicate, they mostly only do single-pathway pathogen-expelling treatment, and the result is that not long after taking the medicine, the child's body cannot bear it.

Moreover, such herbs mostly have side effects; once side effects appear, inexperienced patients and families panic and do not know what to do.

So if some patients or families really do not want to seek, or cannot find, suitable TCM help but insist on trying medication themselves, I suggest that when using pathogen-expelling drugs like cantharis preparations, Xihuang Wan, Xiaojin Wan, Meihua Dianshe Dan, Pingxiao Pian, and other conventional anti-cancer patent medicines, they should at the same time pair them with root-supporting herbs like Bazhen Tang or Shiquan Dabu Tang. Do not recklessly use pathogen-expelling herbs, lest serious consequences result.