Pancreatic cancer is a type of gastrointestinal tumor. It can be a very aggressive human cancer and often has a poor prognosis. The survival rate is low. advanced pancreatic cancer patients often have as little as days to weeks of life span once a diagnosis is made.
Pancreatic cancer may be caused by smoking, drinking too much alcohol, having chronic pancreatitis, and aging. Nonspecific epigastric pain, back pain, weight loss, progressive jaundice, unexplained pancreatitis or diabetes, and chronic diarrhea are common among pancreatic cancer patients. The treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.
Pancreatic cancer has an extremely low response rate to chemotherapy, which makes surgery one of the few treatment options available for advanced cases. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop new therapies to improve patient outcomes.
As in China, many people in Taiwan take Chinese herbs for alternative therapies to improve bodily constitution and treat disease.
To control the growth of advanced cancer, many Taiwanese use herbal medicines as complementary therapy during chemo or radiation treatment.
On Aug 1, 2017, a nationwide population-based Cohort study in Taiwan studied 386 Traditional Chinese Medicine users and 386 non-Chinese medicine users with matching age, sex, and initial diagnostic year of pancreatic cancer.
The clinical trial results showed that heat-clearing, diuresis-promoting, and detoxification herbs had a better efficacy in suppressing tumor blood vessel network expansion.
Among these patients, those who use 2 of the very common Chinese herbal remedies, “Bai Hua She She Cao” (Heydyotis) and “Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang” (Six Gentlemen Decoction with Aucklandia and Amomum), as an adjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer, had a much higher survival rate as compared to non-Chinese medicine users after they were diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.
“Bai Hua She She Cao” (Heydyotis) has been widely recognized as an anti-abscess herb in ancient Chinese history, where it is used to treat internal and external abscesses and ulceration. Over the last fifty years, after numerous clinical studies in China, Heydyotis is now widely recognized as a very important anticancer agent. It is frequently combined with other anti-cancer herbal ingredients or chemotherapeutic agents to treat human cancers such as melanoma, liver, colon cancer and cervical cancer, etc.
Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang (Six Gentlemen Decoction with Aucklandia and Amomum) is a very common body strengthening herbal formula. This herbal formula was derived from another herbal formula which was created 900 years ago. The main use of Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang (Six Gentlemen Decoction with Aucklandia and Amomum) is to improve bodily constitution and boost immunity by improving appetite and reducing digestive issues such as indigestion, belching, bloating, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. This formula can help those with anorexia, morning sickness chronic atrophic gastritis and chronic diarrhea.
Because this Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang (Six Gentlemen Decoction with Aucklandia and Amomum) formula can also help eliminate internal phlegm and “dampness” which trap pathogens and toxins hindering bodily circulation, over the past few decades, Chinese medical researchers studied its anti-tumor effect. The focus of these studies was on the digestive tract and organs which are involved in the digestion process. Over the past two decades, this formula has been used as a combination therapy in China during both western and Chinese medicine treatments for various cancer types.
When used properly, the unique combination of “Bai Hua She She Cao” (Heydyotis) and “Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang (Six Gentlemen Decoction with Aucklandia and Amomum) along with other herbal medicines such as Ban Zhi Lian (Scutellarieae Barbatae), Dan Shen (Salvia miltorrhiza Bunge) and Shen Qu (Medicated Leaven) can reduce adverse effects due to chemo/radiation therapy, inhibit proliferation of pancreatic cancer, cause cancer death and lower mortality risk. They are proven effective in many clinical experiments as well as in some previous clinical case studies.
To find out more about how Chinese Medicine can help resolve your health issues, you can contact the author of this article: Bernadette Yu, a registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, for a brief conversation.
