Traditional Chinese Medicine in co-opertation with Western Medicine?

 When East Meets West, good things can happen. East and west working together? Hooray for cooperation and communication. We may all be the better for it.

Ban Zhi Lian, long used in TCM to treat breast cancer, was discovered to have selectively cytotoxic effects on human cells, mice, and finally, women with advanced breast cancer. In trials using the herb, the evidence of tumor shrinkage and extended life spans merited advanced clinical trials, especially, as it worked without the life threatening toxicity which is inherent to available conventional treatments for advanced breast cancer.

Based on the success of their early studies at UCSF, Cohen and Tagliaferri co-founded Bionovo, a company dedicated to the development of TCM derived compounds into FDA approved drugs for unmet needs in women's health and cancer.

Building a bridge between Eastern and Western medicine made sense. The two sides make up for each other's shortcomings and support each other's strengths. TCM's strengths are: a deep stock of potential drug candidates to investigate with 4,000 years of documentation on their known application, safety and efficacy. Conventional medicine's strengths were: A rigid, formulaic approach to drug development, resulting in robust statistical data regarding a drug's efficacy, safety and tolerability.

 Read the entire original article here: 

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=32433