15/10/2025
🎗️Breast Cancer: Early Integration of Western Medicine & TCM Cancer Care for Optimal Results
🔷 Major treatments for breast cancer: Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy.
🔷 Advantages: Promptly & precisely removal / elimination of cancer cells; timely intervention to control the progression of cancer.
🔷 Bottleneck & long-standing challenges:
1. Side effects caused by chemo drugs, damages to normal body cells.
2. Long term effects that may lead to temporary / lasting health issues.
3. Drug resistance causing treatments to become ineffective.
4. Relapse caused by cancer stem cells which survive & resist drug treatment.
🔶 Clinical Trial done on THL-P (Taiwanese name of TXL) at National Taiwan University Hospital
🔶 To evaluate the safety & efficacy of THL-P, a Chinese herbal mixture, in patients with refractory
metastatic breast cancer.
🔶 Inclusion criteria of participants: women aged 20 to 80 years old, who had histologically or cytologically confirmed breast cancer with clinical evidence of progressive metastatic disease & any 1 of the following:
1. Stage 4 patients.
2. Symptoms did not show satisfactory response after surgery / chemotherapy / radiotherapy.
3. Widespread metastasis of cancer cells has occurred (brain, lungs, liver, lymphatic, at least 2 sites).
4. Min. 4 weeks of life expectancy.
🔶 Conclusion: Findings suggest that an oral administration of 20ml THL-P 3 times a day for 24 weeks significantly improves the quality of life, increases the physical, role, emotional & cognitive functioning, decreases fatigue & systemic therapy side effects, and has immunomodulating effects on lymphocytes in patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer. Additionally, THL-P treatment did not induce any severe adverse events. Together, these findings suggest that THL-P is a safe & effective complementary & alternative medicine for patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer.
🔶 This clinical trial has been published in ClinicalTrials.gov with ID NCT00976365. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00976365
🔶 This clinical trial has been published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine on 18 Jan 2012. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/803239