Herbal Medicine and Cancer

What is herbal medicine?

Herbal medicine uses plant or plant-derived preparations to treat, prevent, or cure various health conditions and ailments.

What is the link between herbal medicine and conventional cancer treatments?

"Herbal medicines are the original source of some of our most powerful U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cytotoxic chemotherapy agents. In the West, drug-based chemotherapy is more than 50 years old. Natural products have been major molecular structural resources for drug discovery. Among the 520 new drugs approved in the United States between 1983 and 1994, 157 were natural products or derived from natural products and more than 60% of antibacterials and anticancer drugs have originated from natural products."
-Botanical Medicine chapter in Integrative Oncology

Some examples of conventional cancer drugs derived from herbal medicines include paclitaxel, docetaxel, and albumin-bound paclitaxel from the Pacific Yew Tree, vincristine, vinblastine, and vinorelbine from the red periwinkle plant, camptothecin from the Chinese tree Camptotheca accuminata, and podophyllin from mayapple.

How does integrative oncology use herbal medicine?

Herbal medicine is currently used by integrative oncology in six major ways¹.

• In primary prevention of cancer in patients at high risk for malignancy with antioxidants and immunomodulators
• As phytopharmaceuticals with direct anti-cancer effects
• As adjuvants to improve the cytotoxic activity of cancer drugs
• As immunomodulators to enhance endogenous immunological anti-cancer activity
• To treat radiation-related reactions and fatigue
• To mitigate the hematological, neurological, and gastroenterological toxicities of chemotherapy drugs

What are the most effective herbal medicines for people affected by cancer?

The most effective herbal medicines for people affected by cancer are optimally customized for each individual through diagnostic testing and expert input by a qualified provider.

Based on published research studies evaluating herbs against cancer, botanicals with the highest level of preclinical and clinical evidence as anticancer and immunomodulatory agents include the following¹.

• Garlic
• Curcumin
• Green tea
• Mistletoe
• Quercetin
• Bromelain
• Milk thistle
• Astragalus
• Ashwagandha
• Medicinal mushrooms

"Naturopathic physicians who specialize in integrative oncology agree that herbal therapy plays a significant role in secondary prevention. Based on their safety and scientific evidence, most NDs include them in their core protocol for preventing cancer relapse in patients who have received primary conventional treatment... The following botanicals are administered orally. Doses in common use are provided as well."
-Botanical Medicine chapter in Integrative Oncology

What is an example of customized herbal medicine for people affected by cancer?

Donald Yance, CN, MH, RH (AHG), an herbalist with expertise in treating people with cancer, applies fundamental objectives to botanical and nutritional therapeutics focused on suppressing 'Cancer Energy' and increasing 'Vital Energies' to lengthen the lifespan and increase quality of life². Herbal remedies are chosen based on each individual's presenting symptoms and constitutional evaluation. Key markers and growth factors are measured and tracked to determine the cancer course and therapeutic results.

Casting a broader net over diagnostics, Yance focuses on three categories in his clinical practice with people affected by cancer.

Branch 1: Human Being
Evaluates three vital energies within the human energy.

• Vital Force—Efficiency of digestive systems and lungs to create energy, blood, and tissue
• Vital Spirit—Balance and harmony of endocrine and neuroendocrine system
• Vital Essence—Strength and connection of spiritual energy within and throughout

Branch 2: Environment
Examines the human relationship with the external environment and the impact of stress

• Exposure to pollution (home, work, recreation)
  • Air, water, radiation, noise, smoke
  • Electromagnetic, artificial light
  • Metals
  • Pathogens (viral, fungal, bacterial), toxins
  • Drugs (prescription and non-prescription)
• Endocrine disruptors, xenoestrogens
• Stress: emotional, psychological, physical
• Relationships: partner, family, friends, community, co-workers, nature, food
• Geographic location
• Exercise: outdoor/indoor, type
• Sunlight
• Travel, activity, sleep, silence, sounds

Branch 3: Biological Terrain
Incorporates molecular profiling, uses target-specific medicines, alters terrain least hospitable to cancer, and strengthens terrain most conducive to health.

Yance's botanical medicine in cancer therapies includes five categories of approaches.

• Tonics: Enhance and harmonize
• Endocrine/Immune System Activators/Modulators, pathway regulators
• Organ System Enhancers (build-up)/Protectors/Detoxifiers
• Alternatives: Improve cellular nutrition and lymphatic drainage
• Cytotoxics: Antimetabolites, apoptotic inducers

What is the history of herbal medicine?

Although herbal medicine does not have a specific point of conception, currently an estimated 80 percent of the world's population relies on medicinal plant preparations for their primary healthcare needs, according to the World Health Organization.

In the early 1900s, more than 3,000 botanical doctors were practicing in the United States. Today, few doctors have expertise in herbal medicine. However, the number of health care providers with knowledge about herbal medicine is increasing.

The earliest known writing about natural products as potential anticancer agents comes from Egypt during the middle of the second millennium BC where the physician Papyrus Ebers listed more than 700 drugs and mostly from plants¹.

For More Information

• Top Cancer Resources has a section called Cancer Drugs, Herbs, and Supplements with more information on the topic
• Integrative Oncology by Donald Abrams, MD and Andy Weil, MD
• Life Over Cancer by Keith Block, MD

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References

1. Integrative Oncology by Donald Abrams, MD and Andy Weil, MD
2. Donald Yance's Botanical Medicine presentation at the 17th International Symposium on Functional Medicine, May 2010