The Yunnan Province Hospital of TCM has a "sister city" relationship with one of the major TCM hospitals in Shanghai. For one month, a number of distinguished doctors from Shanghai come to Kunming to share with our doctors their unique perspective on a variety of specialties including cancer.
A seven year old boy has been suffering from slow growth and frequent bouts of nausea. With Western testing procedures, it was determined that he has a small brain tumor.
From left to right is the cancer specialist from Shanghai. Next is the little boy's uncle. Standing above the boy is his father. The boy sits in the lap of another uncle who was in the driver's seat regarding this young man's medical care because he had some education whereas the father had none.
There is an entire category of herbal medicines in the Chinese pharmacopoeia that treat cancer. Of course there are many different types of cancer, many locations, and many different causal agents. All of these need to be taken into account to arrive at a therapy that is safe and effective.
The doctor was not very forthcoming regarding this case nor the therapeutics that he was prescribing and so we left none the wiser. Some doctors are like that. However, this young man and the concern of his family gave me a lot to think about.
