For more than 50 years, the treatment and cure of cancer has relied predominantly on Western surgery, cytotoxic therapy or chemotherapy and radiation resulting in longer survival periods.
Sadly, cancer continues to be one of the world's main causes of death.
What has become key to survival are supportive measures that can improve the quality of life related to side effects, containing further cancer growth, and even preventing the disease altogether. Yu Rencun, honorary director and professor at the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Hong Hai, professorial fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, are authors of Cancer Management With Chinese Medicine, which has been credited as the first English guide explaining how TCM and Western medicines can be integrated for better outcomes.
The authors, with jointly more than 50 years of research and care for cancer patients integrating both types of treatments, have written the book for both Western medical professionals and a general English-speaking readership, who may benefit from understanding the basic principles of TCM. These are outlined in the first three chapters.
In the last three chapters, the authors present how specific TCM principles relate to cancer treatment and care. There is also a section dedicated to various decoctions and how these herbal remedies can help sustain a functional life with cancer, perhaps helping to eliminate the disease altogether.
Crediting oncology and Western medicine for discovering the various origins and therapies for cancer, the authors believe TCM has a role to play. Admitting that it may not eliminate cancerous tumours, Yu wants patients and a "Western-educated audience" to understand how TCM can strengthen and rebalance the body's yin and yang to increase the odds of success.
The imbalance of yin and yang is considered the root of all illness. In this way, TCM restores the internal balance of a cancer patient by strengthening chi against harmful pathogens, and preventing the development of excess and deficiency syndromes.