Chinese Herbs for Cancer Care Put to 'Western' Test

October 21, 2002
Article retrieved from Reuters.com

NICE (Reuters Health) - Researchers in Hong Kong are putting Chinese herbal medicines to the test using Western scientific methods, in the hope that they can offer solid advice to the many cancer patients who consider using the traditional remedies.

Many people take Chinese medicines, particularly to reduce chemotherapy symptoms, said Dr. Tony Mok from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "We just don't know whether it is effective or safe to use at the same time as conventional medicine," he said. "We tend, therefore, to advise against it--but we should know for sure."

Chinese herbal medicine uses combinations of around 250 possible herbs to restore an individual's internal harmony and fight illness. Because the approach is so different from Western medicine, comparing them is difficult, Mok said.

"It is a different concept to conventional medicine, which is based on 'one drug for one disease,"' he explained.

At the European Society for Medical Oncology conference here, the doctor described a study that looked at whether the capacity of Chinese herbs to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy could be studied in so-called double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. Such studies are considered the best way to determine whether or not a treatment is effective.

These trials compare a treatment with an inactive substance, or placebo. Only at the end of the study is it revealed--to doctors and patients alike--which patients received the treatment and which the placebo.

The researchers studied 40 breast cancer patients and 13 colon cancer patients who had not previously been treated with chemotherapy. The participants were treated either with a powdered form of Chinese herbs prescribed by a traditional herbalist, or a placebo powder.

Half of the treatments lasted at least 84 days and the Chinese remedies included an average of 17 different herbs.

The trial has not finished, but early results suggest a small reduction in nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite, Mok said.

"We have already demonstrated the feasibility of capturing the information from clinical research on Chinese herbal medicine with this methodology," he said. "And we could find something really useful that could point where we should look for better treatment."