Leukemia is one of the most familiar blood diseases, and often when we hear the name, it is mostly accompanied by death, chemotherapy, hair loss, etc. So how do we face this terrible disease? In clinical practice I have found that the application of a combination of Chinese and Western medicine can control this malignant disease very well. Let’s talk about how to treat leukemia.
Acute leukemia is a malignant blood disease, chemotherapy is the main treatment for this disease, but still about 20-50% of patients die due to myelosuppression during the induction phase, or primary drug resistance and cannot achieve complete remission. Even patients who achieve complete remission may relapse and eventually die due to resistance to chemotherapy drugs. Although chemotherapy is currently the main treatment for acute leukemia, it is difficult to completely kill tumor cells. Based on this situation, we actively seek the combined treatment of Chinese and Western medicine for leukemia in order to improve the complete remission rate and long-term disease-free survival rate of acute leukemia and prolong the disease-free survival period.
1. Induction phase with chemotherapy as the main treatment, supplemented by traditional Chinese medicine: Except for acute promyelocytic leukemia (M3) type, chemotherapy is the main treatment for all other types of acute leukemia primaries, allowing patients to achieve complete remission in as short a time as possible. During the chemotherapy process, a myelosuppressive phase mostly occurs, resulting in further reduction of whole blood cells. Therefore, during this stage, Chinese herbal medicine should be used to nourish Qi and blood, nourish kidney and fill essence to reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy, enhance the body’s tolerance to chemotherapy, and promote the recovery of hematopoietic function. Modern pharmacological studies have proved that certain tonic herbs have the effect of promoting the growth of hematopoietic stem cells, and also have the effect of enhancing the immune function of the body, and may have the effect of increasing the sensitivity of leukemia cells to chemotherapeutic drugs.
2. M3 leukemia induction phase with Chinese medicine as the mainstay, supplemented by Western medicine: acute promyelocytic leukemia (M3) simple Chinese medicine arsenic preparations for the treatment of this disease is effective, compared with vincristine with less toxic side effects, no vincristine syndrome and other side effects, has been increasingly widely appreciated. However, due to the aggressive onset of this type of acute leukemia, bleeding and infection are prominent and easily complicated by diffuse intravascular coagulation. While applying traditional Chinese medicine to treat this disease, we actively cooperate with the supportive therapy of western medicine to take advantage of the advantages of western medicine to control bleeding and anti-infection treatment to escort the Chinese medicine treatment of this disease.
3. Combined Chinese and Western medicine treatment of complications: acute leukemia due to bone marrow infiltration of leukemia cells, in addition to the inhibition of bone marrow by chemotherapy, often leads to infection due to neutropenia or out due to thrombocytopenia, and infection and bleeding is the main cause of death in the early stages of acute leukemia. On the basis of identification and typing treatment, thujuan and henbane are added appropriately to counteract the severe neutropenia caused by chemotherapy, and earth rhubarb, cyperus and chenopodium can also be added to promote platelet recovery and strengthen the hemostatic function.
4. Combined Chinese and Western medicine treatment after remission: The focus of Chinese medicine treatment for acute leukemia should be on the treatment after remission. After induction of complete remission, most patients still have more or less leukemic cells in their bodies, which is the root cause of leukemia relapse. Although the application of consolidation, intensive and maintenance therapy can result in long-term disease-free survival in 50%-70% of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the majority of adults with acute leukemia eventually relapse due to resistance to chemotherapy drugs, which becomes an obstacle to the eradication of the disease, and the long-term disease-free survival rate of adults with acute leukemia is generally between 20% and 30%, and most domestic reports are below this value. Therefore, after the patient has achieved complete remission or after bone marrow transplantation, the main focus should be to support the body’s immune function and indirectly kill residual leukemia cells, and on top of that, appropriate detoxification and anti-cancer products can be added to dispel the evil, such as white flowering snake’s tongue herb, half a lotus, mountain cichlid mushroom, bitter ginseng and so on. The purpose is to restore the damage of chemotherapy to the body, enhance the immunity of the body, and destroy the residual leukemia cells in the body, ultimately achieving the purpose of prolonging the disease-free survival and increasing the cure rate.
Although leukemia is raging, current clinical practice shows that patients who adhere to the combination of Chinese and Western medicine treatment can often achieve good results, allowing more leukemia patients to see the hope of health.