Dialogues

Aug 15, 2024, 14:24

Interviews with Prof. Daiming Fan: Merging Traditional and Modern Cancer Therapies v1

In this episode of “United Against Cancer” on OncoDaily, Professor Daiming Fan, president of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, speaks with Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu about his pioneering work in cancer prevention and treatment. He discusses the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with Western methods, which has improved survival rates in China.

Her Excellency Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu is a global cancer advocate, a pediatrician, a UICC Board Member, Founder of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation (MCF), and the Chairperson of First Ladies Against Cancer (FLAC). Dr Bagudu is working with the state ministries of health, education, and women affairs to implement programs to sustainably improve menstrual hygiene, girl-child education, economic empowerment of women, and put an end to gender-based violence. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu is a member of the Editorial Board of OncoDaily.

Daiming Fan is the President of China Anti-Cancer Association, Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering, International Member of the USA National Academy of Medicine, Foreign Associate of the French National Academy of Medicine, and President of Asia Pacific Digestive Week Federation. Previously, he served as the Vice President of Chinese Academy of Engineering and former President of Fourth Military Medical University.

He has an interest in both clinical and basic research of digestive diseases. He has won the first, second and third-class prizes of National Science and Technology Progress Awards, respectively, and a third-class prize of National Technology Invention Awards. He was the first awardee of the Prize “French National Academy of Medicine-Servier”.

As the editor-in-chief, he has authored 33 books on gastroenterology and oncology. He has become the editor or associate editor for 14 international medical journals.

00:00 Recap
00:29 Introduction
03:19 Role Overview
09:13 Evidence-based Advocacy

Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu: The president of the Chinese Anticancer Association, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an international member of the USA National Academy of Medicine, a foreign associate of the French National Academy of Medicine, and a lot of many accolades. He has a long-term interest in both clinical and research of digestive diseases and has been committed to the theoretical research and clinical practice of holistic integrative medicine.

He obtained a lot of national grants, including the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China, National Basic Research Program of China, and many key prizes in National Science and Technology Awards.

As the editor-in-chief, he has authored 33 books on gastroenterology and oncology. As the first corresponding editor, he has published more than 725 papers on international journals such as National Gastroenterohepatological Journal, the National Clinical Practical Oncology, the Lancet, etc. His organization, like I said, is the Chinese Anticancer Association, and his focal area is cancer prevention, treatment, holistic integrative oncology, and public education.

I must say at this point that I was privileged to be a guest at the last CACA meeting that was held in China, a really massive meeting, and showed the great mobilization force as well as a lot of insights into the research that is being carried out in China under the leadership of Professor Fan. Today, we’re going to speak to him to gain a little insight about this great man and the work that he has been doing in cancer control. Thank you very much, Professor.

I want to start by asking you to please tell us about your role in CACA and a summary of the landscape of oncology in China.

Daiming Fan: Okay, so, dear Professor Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, my good friend, so thank you for the interview. So, about your question, it’s a very, very good question. That also many people ask me very often.

So, as the president of China Anticancer Association, our vision is to unite and support cancer communities to reduce the cancer burden in China, to promote the greater equity, and ensure that cancer control remains a priority on the national health and development agenda.

Our mission is to improve cancer prevention and treatment via organizing academic conferences, strengthening public education, promoting CACA guidelines for holistic and integrative management of cancer, and conducting international exchanges.

China sees a positive and evolving situation in its cancer prevention and treatment in recent years, with its overall five-year survival rate for cancer patients up from 30.9 percent in 2000 to 43.7 percent in 2023. China has been improving its prevention and control system with a comprehensive cancer prevention and control network at the national, provincial, and prefectural level basically established.

The expansion and balanced distribution of cancer prevention and control medical resources have been continuously promoted. For example, the screening coverage of breast and cervical cancer has expanded to 90 percent of China’s districts and counties.

We have achieved the preliminary progress in recent years in addressing the challenge of cancer, with the expansion of cancer screening programs in China. Tumors are being detected at an early stage. Patients now have access to a wider range of treatment options, including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, tactile therapy, immunotherapy, as well as traditional Chinese medicine.

However, China still bears heavy cancer burden with high incidence and mortality rates. About one out of four cancer patients in the world is from China. About one out of three patients died of cancer from China.

There are about 8,000 patients died of cancer every day. The cancer burden in China is characterized by high incidence rate, high mortality rate, high economic burden, and no survival rate. According to the statistics in 2023, there are 4.8 million new cases, and the number of cases is about 3 million. It cost over 5.4 trillion on national health expenditures, and the five-year survival rate is 43.7 percent. So that is my answer. Thank you.

Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu: Well, thank you so much. That’s really a very totally encompassing response and highlighting not just the high burden of cancer in China, but also the high investment and the economic value that the investment is bringing. That’s also seeing earlier detection and higher survival rates.

I also know from my own interactions that a lot of innovation and production is coming out of the Chinese continent, Chinese of China, with things like vaccine production and more cost-effective diagnostic platforms, especially in the field of cervical cancer and molecular technology.

In your response, you mentioned a lot of the work that you have done, and I also mentioned in your summary, but I want us to focus a bit on an area that I know has been one of your passions, that is Chinese holistic care in reducing the burden of China. How would you speak to the world on the value of Chinese holistic medicine and including the scientific evidence that you have for your response, please, Professor?

Daiming Fan: Yes, that’s a very good and important question. That is a holistic integrative oncology, which may be in a Western country. So, they call it the complementary medicine or alternative medicine.

As you know, before the Western medicine was introduced in China, we had used Chinese traditional medicine to treat cancer for long, long years with also good results. There is a great amount of essence in traditional Chinese medicine, TCM. For instance, we found that arsenic trioxide, which was used in TCM 2,000 years ago, can treat acute myelostatic leukemia APL with great effect.

Now, it is used worldwide with encouraging results. Another example is anti-mycelin. It is extracted from some plants and can be used to treat malaria.

One of the doctors, Mr. Youyou Tu, has won the Nobel Prize because of it. Now, it is also found that anti-mycelin can reverse not only the bacterial drug resistance, but also the tumor cell drug resistance. Besides, the TCM indicated 2,000 years ago that microbiome can treat diseases.

If the chemotherapy doesn’t work for tumor and multiple drug resistance occurs, we don’t need to deal with tumor cells. We just need to change the intestinal microbiota and the drug resistance of tumor cells can be reversed. In particular, acupuncture exercises and dietary therapy in TCM have great effect on the rehabilitation of cancer patients.

I advocate for using traditional Chinese medicine in combination with Western medicine. They are complementary to each other, and we need to integrate their strengths. For example, TCM can be used to enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of Western medicine.

We have integrated the TCM with Western medicine in our CACA guidelines. In combination, they can achieve the great effect on the holistic integration management of cancer. In other words, the Western medicine also needs integration of knowledge and practice, which can promote the better result.

So, that is the holistic integration of oncology. I mean, the concept proposed by Chinese doctors is really important. Thank you.