The Heat-clearing and Fire-purging Medicinal Composition for Combating Metastatic Cancer

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely used as alternative therapy for patients who suffer from cancer disease. Accumulating evidence support the notion that cancer may hijack systemic effectors to create microenvironment for cancer progression. This phenomenon is consisted with a theoretic hypothesis based on human systemic health/unhealthy homeostasis for altering disease environment. We learn from experience used of herbal medicine classified as heat-clearing and fire-purging medicine, which have the effect of clearing up internal heat due to yin deficiency. However, lack of scientific evidence to answer the question of how TCM affect cancer cells and alter systemic function is a challenge for translating TCM treatment into clinic. In this study, we look for folk medicine using TCM composition that can improve patients' outcome. A national health insurance (NHI) program was implemented in 1995. Over 22.6 million individuals from a total population of 23.0 million in Taiwan were enrolled in this insurance program. Observation cohort study was conducted to determine the association between used TCM containing Polygonaceae and Ranunculaceae materials and mortality among the bladder cancer patients. Patients treated with TCM over 135.65 g per year significantly reduce hazard ratio compared with Non-TCM user. Using scratch wound healing and time lapse imaging, we demonstrate that the combination of Polygonaceae and Ranunculaceae materials were successfully suppressed the migration of metastatic cancer cells. Furthermore, molecular mechanisms revealed that several molecules such as SOX8 and LHX3 may play an important role for treating metastasis by integrating mRNA and microRNA expression. Collectively, we found that heat-clearing and fire-purging medicinal composition containing two herbs may improve the outcome of metastatic cancer treatment.