A 23-Year Record of Integrated Chinese-Western Treatment of One Fibroma Patient

The patient, a woman surnamed Zhang, born in 1986 and from Hanzhong, Shaanxi province, in 2001, at age 15, accidentally noticed swelling of her right leg. At her local township hospital, the primary-care doctor suspected calcium deficiency. After taking calcium tablets for a whole summer with no improvement, she went to the county hospital, where a CT scan revealed unnamed masses in the right groin and right buttock. A biopsy of the right buttock lesion diagnosed fibroma.

Because surgery was lengthy, only the groin mass was removed at the time; the wound became infected and took over a year to heal. In 2002 a small mass grew on the second toe of the right foot, but it later slowly disappeared on its own.

In 2008 the patient noticed another mass near the third toe of the right foot, and that autumn found it had grown. At the orthopedics department of Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, a full workup and pathology (pathology no. 200826141) diagnosed fibromatosis of the right iliac fossa, right buttock and second toe of the right foot. After expert consultation, only the mass on the right third toe was surgically removed; other sites were to be observed clinically. To remove the tumor cleanly, the surgeon amputated the right third toe, and pathology of the excised tissue again showed fibroma.

In 2010 the patient recurred at the surgical site; the tumor grew along the incision and across the sole and dorsum of the foot. She felt that tumor tissue had silently infiltrated the whole foot. She returned to the original surgeon, who recommended amputation but noted that amputation did not guarantee no recurrence.

In the early recurrence period the patient already had clear symptoms: aversion to cold and progressive weight loss, with weight falling rapidly from about 45 kg to 35 kg. Her back suffered episodic distress; whenever her back distressed, her stomach also distressed and she could take neither food nor water. By then the patient had lost hope in continued Western treatment and turned to TCM for help.

Late in 2010 the patient, by chance, came across Yanghe Tang (Yang-Soaking Decoction) and Xihuang Wan (Rhinoceros-ox Bezoar Pill). Within a week of taking them she saw effect: the foot skin stretched thin by the tumor looked less taut, and some early small red masses faded in color. She therefore kept taking Yanghe Tang and Xihuang Wan for about a year and three months, and the foot masses shrank considerably.

But because the patient had to return to school for exams and found it inconvenient to decoct herbs while staying with relatives, she stopped for nearly a month; later, the herbs used were of questionable quality, and a family crisis caused great emotional fluctuation. Under these combined factors, the condition recurred with multiple metastases, and new small masses appeared in the popliteal fossa and ankle. Continuing Yanghe Tang and Xihuang Wan no longer worked; she also consulted two or three other doctors without a breakthrough.

In 2014 she turned to nutritional medicine; through dietary adjustment and nutritional supplements over about four years, she improved: she no longer felt cold, and her back distress greatly eased, but the tumors barely changed—neither growing nor shrinking.

In 2019 the patient's disease progressed and she began asking me for help. Following my approach of large TCM combination formulas with multi-target, broad-spectrum anti-cancer action, I used over a hundred herbs, and eventually over two hundred, to treat her comprehensively, combining the treatment principles of securing root and supporting healthy qi, attacking toxin with poison, activating blood and resolving stasis, resolving phlegm and draining water, clearing heat and resolving toxin, and softening hardness and dispersing nodules. She took the herbs until May 2022, when the tumor in the right iliac fossa was found to have shrunk markedly.

But in September 2022 the patient's right foot distressed; I strengthened the heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herbs, with most of the formula consisting of heat-clearing, toxin-resolving and blood-cooling, swelling-dispersing herbs. She continued the herbs until August 2024; her weight recovered from over 35 kg to about 45 kg, and the foot masses shrank a great deal—she had formerly worn size 42 slippers but could now wear size 38.

After 23 years of treatment, this patient's most effective regimen was ultimately shown to be a comprehensive TCM approach combining root-securing and healthy-qi-supporting, heat-clearing and toxin-resolving, hardness-softening and nodule-dispersing, blood-activating and stasis-resolving, and toxin-attacking-with-poison—namely the TCM anti-cancer "cocktail" method I described in my article "An Introduction to My Practical Experience Using TCM Combination Formulas with Multi-Target, Broad-Spectrum Anti-Cancer Action" (see the link for details).

Her final stable formula contained the following herbs: Huangqi, Xiyangshen (American ginseng), Huangjing (Polygonati Rhizoma), Yiyiren, Shengdi, Chishao, Mudanpi, Digupi, Sheng Huaihua (Sophorae Flos), Lianqiao, Kushen, Beidougen, Shandougen, Huangqin, Xuanshen, Zhe Beimu, Chuanbeimu, Duan Muli, Pugongying roots, Cebai Tan (charred Platycladi Cacumen), Baihuasheshecao, Banzhilian, Tieshuye (Caryotae Folium), Laojunxu, Sheng Shanzha, Haizao (Sargassum), Kunbu (Eckloniae), Zhizi (Gardeniae Fructus), Zaojiaoci (Gleditsiae Spina), Yejuhua (Chrysanthemi Indici Flos), Tiankuizi (Semiae Bolbostemmatis), Zihuadiding (Violac Dioscorpleae Herba), Jinyinhua, Danshen, Chonglou (Paridis Rhizoma), Ruxiang, Moyao, Xuejie (Draconis Sanguis), Ercha (Gambir), Tenghuang (Gambogiae Resina), Sanleng, Ezhu, Yuanhu, Huaruishi (Osta Testudinis? — crumb-powder stone), Quan Gualou (whole Trichosanthis), Lujiaoshuang (deer-antler residue), Taizishen, Yuzhu (Polygonati odorati Rhizoma), Jiaogulan (Gynostemma), Jingjiesui (Schizonepetae Spica), Chao Zhiqiao, Xiakucao, Daqingye (Isatidis Folium), Qingdai, Banlangen, Sanjianshan (Cephalotaxi), Xishuguo (Camptothecae Fructus), Wugong, Quanxie, Bihu (Gecko), Jinqiaomai (Fagopyri Cymosi Herba), Changchunhua (Catharanthi Herba), Hongdoushangen (Taxi cortex), Fuling, Zhuling (Polyporus), Jianghuang (Curcumae longae Rhizoma), Chao Jiangcan (fried Bombyx batryticatus), Biejia, Guiban, Mohanlian (Ecliptae Herba), Nuzhenzi (Ligustri Lucidi Fructus), Tianhuafen, Shishangbai (Selaginellae?), Sanqi, Malian (Thalictri?), Baitouweng (Pulsatillae Radix), Diyu (Sanguisorbae Radix), Huzhang (Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma), Yujin, Wuweizi, Buguzhi, Maimendong, Honggencao, Xianhecao, Xiaoji, Fengweicao (Pteris), Shijianchuan (Salvia chinensis), Shanqiao, Suchan (Bufonis Venenum), Hei mayi (black ant), Dilong, Baiji, Shexiang, Niuhuang, Bingpian (Borneolum), and over a hundred other herbs. Though there were many herbs, each was used in a dose of only a few hundredths of a gram, so during treatment the patient had no obvious adverse reactions, normal liver and kidney function, and lived and worked as usual.

Over the same period, a lymphoma patient and a patient with multiple melanoma metastases whom I treated with the same regimen also achieved good results: tumors shrank markedly and their condition improved.

Judging from this patient's course, Yanghe Tang and Xihuang Wan worked early on, while in recent years heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herbs worked best. This suggests that, for her, what mattered may not have been TCM's yin-yang cold-heat pattern logic, but rather the biochemical reactions in the body triggered by the antitumor components in the herbs. In learning TCM anti-cancer treatment, we may explore new paths; we need not confine our thinking to traditional TCM's eight-principle, six-meridian or triple-burner pattern differentiation, but may try to combine modern pharmacology and modern medical thinking to explore new composing approaches.