New Pancreatic Cancer Medicine from Chinese Herbs

 Three New Developments from Chinese Medicine

Huang Qin Tang is a classical Chinese herbal formula created 1850 years ago by the scholar, Zhang Zhongjing. This formula, consisting of four herbs, has been documented by Chinese medicine to treat common gastrointestinal distress, including fever, headache, extreme thirst, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal spasms, and subcardiac distention. Twelve years ago, researchers at Yale Medical School, led by Dr. Yung-Chi Cheng, began subjecting this formula to rigorous clinical trials as an oncology drug. So far, Huang Qin Tang has gone through preclinical trials, phase I clinical studies, phase II clinical studies, and ongoing phase III trials. It is being investigated for the treatment of liver cancer, pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer. This study is a good example of the way that classical Chinese medicine principles hold true in modern medical practice.

At the University of Minnesota, groundbreaking research in the treatment of pancreatic cancer has been successfully conducted by Dr. Ashok Saluja and his team. Dr. Saluja is a professor and vice chair of research at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Surgery. A year ago, Dr. Saluja came to my Academy and presented a talk on his pancreatic cancer research and the development of an experimental drug, Minnelide. A Chinese herb, Lei Gong Teng (which translates as “thunder god vine”), is at the center of this research project. Cancer cells protect themselves with a “survival protein” called HSP 70. At present, regular chemotherapy drugs are not effective at counteracting HSP 70.  In 2007, Dr. Saluja and his collaborators found that pancreatic cancer cells produce an exceptional amount of HSP 70, making pancreatic cancer especially aggressive and difficult to treat. Dr. Saluja found that a compound derived from Lei Gong Teng, called triptolide, works to halt the development of HSP 70 in tumor cells. However, triptolide is difficult to administer as a drug, because it is not water-soluble. In his laboratory, Dr. Saluja and his team patented a method to create an injectable chemotherapy drug from triptolide, which proved to be highly effective against pancreatic cancer in animal models. They named their discovery Minnelide, in acknowledgement of the University of Minnesota and the compound triptolide. Now Minnelide is in phase one clinical trials.

At the University of Texas Health Science Center, researchers led by Dr. Kumar have discovered that an extract of bark from the Amur cork tree can be used for treating pancreatic cancer. This bark, called Huang Bai, is a traditional Chinese herb. Its medicinal use has been documented for over three thousand years. In Chinese medicine jargon, this herb is used for clearing heat, drying dampness, purging fire and relieving toxicity. It has been used to treat dysentery, jaundice, urinary tract infections, eczema, and carbuncles. For cancer symptoms which fall into the Chinese medicine pathological pattern of phlegm congestion and heat toxin retention, Huang Bai is an herb of choice. What Dr. Kumar and his team investigated was the effect of Huang Bai on the process of fibrosis. Fibrosis is a process of uncontrolled scarring around a cancerous tumor. Once you have fibrotic tissue, chemotherapy drugs cannot get at the cancer. Pancreatic tumors are prone to fibrosis, as are tumors in the liver, kidney, and prostate. Dr. Kumar’s research indicates that Huang Bai extract inhibits the scarring that blocks anti-cancer drugs. As a bonus, Huang Bai extract also seems to suppress fibrosis-related inflammation as well. 

From Dr. Changzhen Gong's keynote speech to the Intercultural Collegiate Cancer Conference: Understanding Health Disparities and Making Connections on March 21, 2014.