Role of Kampo Medicine in Integrative Cancer Therapy

Overview

Journal Evid Based Complement Alternat Med

Specialty Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2013 Sep 3

PMID 23997796

Citations 15

Authors

Jun-Ichi Yamakawa

Yoshiharu Motoo

Junji Moriya

Masao Ogawa

Hiroaki Uenishi

Sumiyo Akazawa

Toshiyuki Sasagawa

Matomo Nishio

Junji Kobayashi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Clinical trials to date demonstrate that standard cancer treatments are currently the most efficient treatments for large numbers of cancer patients. Cancer treatments will increasingly require approaches that allow patients to live with cancer, by increasing their natural healing power and tumor immunity, as well as attenuating the progression of their cancers, instead of only attacking the cancer cells directly. Complementary and alternative medicine, including Kampo medicine, compensates for the drawbacks of western medicine by increasing patients' self-defense mechanisms. In Japan, clinicians who have studied both western medicine and Kampo treat cancer patients by fusing the two medical systems into a unitary one. The goal of the system is to assist the functional maintenance and recovery of the living body complex with the physical, mental, social, and spiritual balance, rather than addressing direct antitumor effects. In this review, we describe the usefulness of Kampo medicine, especially juzentaihoto, and outline the reports on evidence, in addition to the report on an attitudinal survey about the use of Kampo medicine in cancer treatment in Japan.

Citing Articles

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