Chinese Herbs for Breast Cancer Treatment

By Avy Mallik
Asian Week July 31st  2001

Isaac Cohen is optimistic but guarded — on predicting what the future holds for the Chinese herbs he is testing for cancer treatment. “These Chinese herbs are not a cure for breast cancer or any other forms of cancer,” he says. “They might, however, slow down cancer cell growth.” The herbs may induce a remission in breast cancer activity, explains the doctor of Chinese medicine.

According to statistics published by BreastCancer.com, breast cancer is the most common form of malignancy among women. Malignant tumors differ from more common benign tumors in that they are likely to aggressively spread throughout the body, making them difficult to treat. This year alone, an estimated 178,000 new cases of breast cancer are predicted to be reported. In past decades, U.S. patients almost always battled the disease through means of mainstream Western science. But as of five years ago, there has been a rekindling of interest in alternative forms treatments.

Bradly Jacobs is a doctor and physician in alternative medicine at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). He went to Harvard Medical School, and has been working at UCSF for the past four years. Chinese herbs play a significant part in his treatment for cancer patients. Jacobs is quite certain that one day the mainstream public will accept this field of treatment, which is still in its infancy in the United States.

“There is a growing acceptance of alternative medication by the public as well as medical institutions,” he says. “This is a growing trend, with as many as 60 percent of medical schools teaching the principles of alternative medicine and traditional Asian forms of treatment.”

Jacobs believes that there is a generation gap between doctors when it comes to trying out newer forms of medicine.

“Since younger physicians are more exposed to herbal benefits, yoga-therapy and acupuncture, they are more likely to recommend those forms of treatment to their patients,” he says.

Jacobs, who was trained as a conventional medical doctor before studying alternative methods of treatment, believes that Chinese medicine is growing in popularity.

“Most academic and governmental institutions are researching and approving the use of Chinese herbs,” he says. “And these institutions are usually a lot more conservative than the Western public.”

Cohen, meanwhile, has been busily working on clinical and laboratory tests on the effects of herbs on cancer cells. He has been a Chinese medicine practitioner for 13 years, and went to medical school in the United States. He later continued his studies in China, specializing in cancer research. He hopes to conclude his clinical tests on breast cancer in one year and publish his results in the near future. His laboratory tests, he says, have been promising.

“Last week, we had quite a bit of excitement. Three herbs that we tested showed a strong ability to slow down the growth of cancer cells,” he says. “It has only been tested against breast cancer, but these herbs killed and destroyed the cells.”

Cohen also thinks that the herbs in question can work against other types of cancer. The herbs are called Scutellaria barbatae (Ban Zhi Lian), Anamarrhena asphodeloides (Zhi Mu), and Vaccaria sigetalis (Wang Bu Liu Xing).

These laboratory trials, although promising, do not guarantee that the herbs will successfully battle breast cancer in human beings.

“Laboratory testing is completely independent from clinical testing,” Cohen says. “We cannot prove that these herbs will help in real-life situations. We will have to do clinical tests to see if they work.”

Many more studies need to be conducted to come up with conclusive evidence that these herbs help fight cancer, Cohen says. He stresses that breast cancer is an individualistic disease, which makes it difficult to develop effective treatment for the masses.

“These herbs can work for several months on one patient, a number of years for another patient, or not work at all for someone else,” he says. “It all depends on what state of cancer you have, how healthy your body is, and how fast the cancer cells mutate and grow resistant to the medication.”

Cohen also explains that while some doctors are recommending the use of Chinese herbs to their breast cancer patients, others aren't. He points out, however, that his “study is FDA approved … We successfully attained the approval of the medical body as well as the government.”

Nevertheless, the future of Chinese herbs and other forms of alternative medicine are uncertain.

“In the 1960s,” explains Cohen, “the National Cancer Institute tried out 2,500 herbs for medical purposes. They later abandoned the project because of the amount of popularity that synthetic medication had. We at UCSF have picked up where they left off .”

Cohen doesn't believe that the interest in traditional and natural forms of medication will abate anytime soon.

“Several things will happen in the field of herbal medicine,” he says. “First of all, herbal medication will be adopted by the Western world as a legitimate form of medication. Secondly, there will be no distinction between conventional medicine and alternative medicine.”

Predicts Cohen: “Over a couple of years, a pattern should emerge, showing that the treatments were a success. The key is to correctly interpret all the findings.”