Classification:

1. herbal medicines with heat and toxin clearing action
2. herbal medicines with blood-regulating action
3. herbal medicines with phlegm-removing action
4. herbal medicines with diuretic and dampness-eliminating action
5. herbal medicines for external application

Herbal Medicines with Heat and Toxin Clearing Action

Generally speaking, the herbal medicines with heat and toxin clearing action are prescribed for illness displaying heat-toxin syndrome. Some of the patients suffering from neoplasm manifest as suffering from heat-syndrome, such as fever, thirst, deep-colored urine, red tongue, rapid pulse, etc. At the same time, signs of heat-toxin retention are shown, for example, necrosis and secretion of stinking tumor mass; foul dirty vaginal discarge in cervical carcinoma cases; purulent and bloody stool in colonic carcinoma cases; hematemesis, epistaxis and subcutaneous hemorrhage in leukemia cases; jaundice, hematemesis and hemafecia in hepatic carcinoma cases; and so on. The herbal medicines in this category are effective for relieving the heat-toxin syndrome hich appears in the patients suffering from neoplasm.

Herbal Medicines with Blood-regulating Action

The herbal medicines with blood-regulating action serve to activate blood circulation and eliminate blood-stasis, or to stop bleeding. In some of the patients suffering from neoplasm, there may be a palpable mass with localized pain and accompanied by a diminshed complexion, a dull tongue with petechiae or ecchymoses, and an engorged sublingual vein. These signify a blood-stasis syndrome. The herbal medicines with blood-circulation activating and blood-stasis eliminating action can remove the blood stagnation so as to dissipate the tumor and to relieve pain. Furthermore, hemorrhage may also be seen in the neoplastic cases, which is caused by blood-heat, blood-stasis, or blood extravasation due to heat. For these cases, the herbal medicines with hemostatic effect not only serve as a symptomatic treatment but also as a causative treatment for cooling the blood, purging fire and eliminating blood-stasis.

Herbal Medicines with Phlegm-removing Action

The herbal medicines with phlegm-removing action serve to eliminate the secreation of resporatory tract and the phlegm elsewhere. As the term phlegm in TCM is rather broad, the manifestation of phlegm-syndrome varies with different locations in which the phlegm accumulates. When it is accumulated in the lung, the case may mainfest as dyspneic cough with expectoration (e.g. lung cancer); in the stomach, as nausea, vomiting and epigastric fullness (e.g. gastric cancer); in the meridians and subcutaneous tissues, as scrofula and subcutaneous nodules (e.g. cervical lymphoma, cervical metastatic cancer, mammary carcinoma, etc.); in the brain, as dizziness or disturbance of consciousness (e.g. brain tumor). Hence, the herbal medicines of this kind may serve to relieve the phlegm-syndrome occurring in the neoplastic cases.

Herbal Medicines with Diuretic and Dampness-eliminating Action

The herbal medicines with diuretic and dampness-eliminating action are applied to cases with retention of fluid and dampness. Some of the patients suffering from neoplasm show a fluid-retention or dampness-accumulation syndrome, manifesting as edema, ascites, leucorrhagia, diarrhea, or dysuria and associated with a corpulent tongue covered by thick turbid and smooth fur. The herbal medicines in this category can relievesuch disorders occurring in the patients.

Herbal Medicines with Tonic Effects

The herbal medicines with tonic effects are used to treat asthenia-syndrome cases with manifest as insufficiency of vital energy, blood, yin or yang. Because debility and deficiency of healthy energy is one of the important causes responsible for tumorigenesis, and a neoplasm already developed may further impair the healthy energy, so the patients suffering from neoplasm usually display an asthenia-syndrome. The application of tonics may enhance the body resistance and is certainly beneficial to the antineoplastic therapy. In fact, it has been found that many herbal medicines with tonic effects can promote the immunologic, hemopoietic as well as digestive functions of the body, and some of them even serve as an inhibitor or killer of the tumor cells. When applying this kind of herbal medicines, the principle of trestment in line with syndrome differentiation should be followed, and the medicines selected for use should match with the attribution of asthenia-syndrome (i.e., whether it is asthenia of vital energy, blood, yin-yang, or one of the viscera).

Herbal Medicines for External Application

The herbal medicines for external application are generally erosive and poisonous, and their dosages should be strictly handled. They are applied on the surface of tumor, or as an infiltrate into the mass or around its base, to induce necrosis and exfoliation of the tumor.

Beware of Characteristics

The actions of a herbal medicine is always not one but many. For example, Calculus Bovis is not only a phlegm-eliminating agent but also a heat-clearing one; Ganoderma Lucidum seu Japonicum not only can nourish vital energy and blood, but also tranquilize the mind. Therefore, the herbal medicines are difficult to be classified categorically, and the classification mentioned in here is only based on their major effects which are accepted conventionally.

Various properties and flavors of herbal medicines exert different effects. This is an important theory of traditional Chinese pharmacology.

The Four Properties of Herbal Medicines

There are four properties of herbal medicines, i.e., cold, heat, warm and cool. In general, the herbal medicines with warm and heat properties are prescribed for cold-syndrome (e.g. aversion to cold, cold limbs, pale tongue, slow pulse, etc.) and those with cool and cold characters for heat-syndrome (e.g. fever, thirst, deep-colored urine, red tongue, rapid pulse, etc.).

The Five Flavours

The herbal medicines are grouped under five flavors, i.e., acridness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness and saltiness, which exert different effects. Generally speaking, acridness serves to expel and to activate; sweetness, to invigorate, to regulate and to moderate; sourness, to astringe and to preserve; bitterness, to lower, to release and to dry; saltiness, to soften and to purge.

Every herbal medicine possesses a specific character and flavor of varying degrees. It is the combination of both that constitutes the overall action of individual medicine. Hence, the clinical application of herbal medicines, including the antineoplastic therapy, should be based on this conventional theory. The property and flavor of each herbal medicine are mentioned in this book as a reference for their selection in clinical practice.

However, the component of individual herbal medicines is rather complicated and its effect is usually multiple and not single. So, besides the antineoplastic effect, the other effects are also presented. And although the active antineoplastic ingredients have been isolated from some of the herbal medicines, these ingredients may exert effects other than antineoplastic. This multiple effect phenomenon is also observed in some of the western mono-component antineoplastic drugs. For example, cyclo-phosphamide can act on the various phases of proliferative cells causing degeneration of DNA, RNA, enzymes and protein and serves as a killer of tumor cells, and it is also an immunosuppresant and applied for autoimmune diseases, Corticosteroids can inhibit the lymphatic tissue and serves as an antineoplastic agent for some tumors, but it also exerts antiphlogistic, immunosuppressive, antishock and other effects, and is widely used in various diseases. Therefore, the indications of each herbal medicine presented in this site include the diseases other than neoplasms, so as to help browsers to have a more complete understanding of their effects.

Some of the pharmacologic effects of herbal medicines are also presented here. The information listed under this segment are mostly obtained from the published literatures of the experimental animal research, in vivo or in vitro, based on the principle of antineoplastic pharmacology. It has been found that the antineoplastic mechanism of herbal medicines is attributed to their actions chiefly on the proliferative phase of the tumor cells. Some of them inhibit the DNA synthesis, such as Fructus et Radix Camptothecae Acuminatae, Indigo Naturalis, Fructus Bruceae, Rhizoma Zedoariae, Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae, etc., and some inhibit the synthesis of protein, such as Semen, Cortex, Ramulus et Folium Cephalotaxi Hainanensis, Mylabris, Radix Tylophorae Floribundae, etc. Only a few selectively act on the mitotic phase of tumor cells, such as Herba Catharanthi Rosei, Semen Coicis, etc.

Furthermore, some of the data are obtained from both animal experiment and clinical observation on the non-specific antineoplastic mechanism (chiefly the immunologic function), indicating that the enhancement of bodily immunologic function may be an important antineoplastic mechanism of herbal medicines. It has been proved that many herbal medicines can promote the phagocytosis of macrophages (e.g. Herba Hedyotis Diffusae, Herba Sarcandrae, Ganoderma Lucidum seu Japonicum, Poria, Radix Sophorae Flavescentis, etc.). Some can enhance the cellular immunity (e.g. Radix Trichosanthis, Herba Taraxaci, Bulbus Allii, etc.), and some can enhance the humoral immunity (e.g. Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae, Radix Actinidiae Chinensis, etc.). Some can promote the activty of natural killer cells (e.g. Radix Ginseng) while some can induce the production of interferon (e.g. Radix Astragali, Radix Ginseng, Radix Actinidiae Chinensis, etc.).

In summary, the herbal medicines achieves their antineoplastic effect through various ways. Moreover, some medicine can bring on several actions, for example, they may directly inhibit the growth of tumor as well as indirectly exert an antineoplastic effect by enhancing the bodily immunologic function. Generally they elicit no significant adverse effect on the human body, and this is a strong point of herbal medicine for antineoplastic treatments. Nevertheless, research in this field is only preliminary and we need further in-depth studies to obtain conclusive results.