Regression Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Spontaneous Or Herbal Medicine Related?
Cheng, H. M., & Tsai, M. C. (2004). Regression of hepatocellular carcinoma spontaneous or herbal medicine related?. The American journal of Chinese medicine, 32(4), 579–585. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X04002211
View Original Source →Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common causes of death from cancer in Taiwan. Treatments for this disease include surgical resection, transcatheter arterial embolization, chemoembolization and systemic chemotherapy. Without treatment, the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is poor, and mortality continues to be significant even in patients with small tumors detected during follow-up. For patients in Taiwan with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, traditional herbal medicine is frequently used. However, neither the overall prevalence of this therapy nor its efficacy has been studied systematically. Spontaneous regression of cancer, although rare, may occur, but the mechanism leading to regression is still far from understood. Here, we report a case of hepatocellular carcinoma with complete regression after taking herbal medicine. We cannot be certain how significant the herbal preparation was in the regression of the hepatocellular carcinoma, but the regression of the tumor provides us a reason and hope for further research.
Case Details
Disease Location
Liver
Personal Characteristics
74-year-old male, history of well-controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension. There was no evidence of hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, or hepatocellular cancer in his family members
Clinical Characteristics
Consciousness disturbance and hypoglycemia. He complained of a poor appetite, abdominal fullness, and a body- weight loss of 3 kg in the last two weeks before admission. Pe revealed a distended abdomen and tenderness over the ruq. He did not have jaundice. Laboratory studies showed elevated AFP. Both abdominal ultrasound and computed axial tomography showed a huge mass approximately 10 cm in diameter in the medial segment of the left hepatic lobe and surrounded by metastatic hyperechoic nodules. Biopsy guided by ultrasound revealed a moderately differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma
Remission Characteristics
Six months after taking the decoction; the tumor shrank from 10 cm to about 4 cm in diameter. 3 months later CT showed nearly complete shrinkage of the tumor in the left hepatic lobe; only a small residual tumor remained at the top of the left lobe. AFP returned within normal range
Treatment & Mechanisms
Proposed Remission Mechanisms
Not discussed
Clinical Treatment
Glipizide, felodipine,
Non-Clinical Treatment
Traditional herbal therapy (six traditional chinese crude herbal medicines and three local taiwanese herbal remedies)