Ancient Chinese Medicine for Cancer

If ancient Chinese medicine can give us a cure for malaria, could it also provide cures for other diseases like cancer? That was my thought when I first read about the discovery of the malaria remedy in TCM, and apparently, I wasn't the first to think that! A pharmacology professor at Yale University is trying to find out exactly that.

Prof. Yung-Chi Cheng of the Yale School of Medicine is studying botanical drugs based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that can make traditional cancer treatments work better. The professor calls the approach "WE medicine"- a combination of Western experimental-based pharmacology and eastern experience plant-based medicine.

I found the story of how his research began also quite interesting. After he expressed his interest in Chinese medicine for cancer treatment to a postdoc researcher, Shwu-Huey Liu, she went to the library and started researching Chinese herbs. After narrowing the search to common herbs that are still in use, and had four or fewer elements, she came up with twenty formulations and began researching each of their chemical properties. Finally, one treatment for stomach ailments called Huang Qin Tang dating back 1,800 years emerged as the most promising.

The team used the formula to make a drug called YIV-906, which has demonstrated a high inhibitory property against the debilitating side effects of the chemotherapy drug, CPT-11 in testing. Additional testing showed the drug also enhanced the effect of certain immunotherapy drugs like anti-PD1 in reducing tumors. Clinical trials for YIV-906 for the drug is being launched now for liver cancer and hepatitis B patients.

YIV-906 surrounded by its botanical ingredients

The researchers have started a company called Yiviva, which translates to "long live medicine" in Chinese combined with Spanish. Quite an apt moniker considering the drug's long history, wouldn't you say?

Sources:

https://news.yale.edu/2020/03/13/ancient-chinese-medicine-unlocks-new-possibilities-cancer-treatment
https://yiviva.com/

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