Should herbal medicine be used concurrently with chemotherapy?

• Using botanicals along with chemotherapy may offer some advantages to the patient only if the botanicals are synergistic with the chemo treatment. Botanical adjuvant therapies are complex and require a consultation with a professional who is knowledgably about botanical combinations and chemotherapy.
• Therefore, patients interested in botanical adjuvant therapy should be referred for consultation with an ND board certified in oncology or TCM practitioner who specialized in cancer care.
• TCM and Japanese medicine has used of botanicals concurrently with chemotherapy for many years. However, few of these clinical studies have been published in Western journals.

We asked this question to an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine and oncology, Tai Lahans, DAOM. Here is her reply:

There are not many practitioners in this area who treat cancer patients. For those who do - some use classical formulas and some use TCM formulas and some use modern Chinese medicine formulas that have statistical data to support their use with that particular chemo and that particular cancer type based on western parameters. I use all of the above but prefer to use the modern formulas when the data supports it because I can then supply the study or a translation of it to the patient's oncologist. The same goes for radiation, although the formulas used along with radiation, are almost always modern Chinese medicine formulas. These formulas do not have any action that could be construed to be antioxidant. The formulas are mostly increasing blood circulation and oxygenation of blood to tumor cells to potentiate the radiation. ... most practitioners use herbal medicine during treatment with chemo and radiation, unless otherwise contraindicated. There is now enough valid information and translated information to support the use of some Chinese herbal medicine formulas during chemo and radiation. The issue is more - which herbs and when exactly to use them in the context of both chemo and radiation. Concurrent use may mean using the herbs during a course of treatment but perhaps not during a 48 - 72 hour window around the infusion, depending on the half-life of the drug regimen.

Many practitioners, unfortunately, do not have training in integrated oncology - even the Chinese practitioners. Yet, they may advertise that they treat cancers adjunctively. Almost no local practitioners have any supervised clinical training in integrated oncology. And many do not read Chinese and, therefore, cannot access the clinical studies on the Chinese web sites available.

Dr. Lahans' personal experience is that patients who do combined care have better quality of life, longer life, higher CBCs, more normal organ function, and fewer side effect symptoms. This to me would be the standard to which to hold ourselves.