Chen Zhu, a Chinese scientist, recently received an award in the United States for using a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine for increasing the chances of survival for patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).
The American Society of Hematology in San Diego, California, gave Chen Zhu, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Hematology, the 2016 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize last week, along with Dr. Hugues de The, a professor of cellular and molecular oncology at the College de France and at Hospital Saint-Louis in Paris.
APL used to be the most deadly form of leukemia, a malignant hematologic disease with a high mortality rate.
American Society of Hematology President Charles S. Abrams said in a statement: "Thirty years ago, APL was among the most dreaded and lethal forms of leukemia. Today, it is among the most curable, thanks to the outstanding contributions of doctors De Thé and Chen."
"Together, their work to understand APL from a molecular level, and then applying those insights to discovering groundbreaking treatments, has significantly improved patient outcomes. Doctors De The and Chen's accomplishments are highly regarded in our field, and I am honored that the Society has chosen them to give one of our most prestigious lectures."
Though arsenic is known for its toxicity and is used in Chinese literature as a murder weapon, arsenic trioxide (called “pishuang” in Chinese) is used to treat cancer and other conditions.
Professor Chen and his team developed a research-targeted treatment strategy using all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (As2O3), a method that was said to be able to raise the rate of patient’s disease-free survival in five years up to 90 percent. It transformed APL from a highly fatal disease to the first curable acute myeloid leukemia.
This was not the first time that the combination of Chinese and Western medicine made a breakthrough in medical science.
Tu Youyou, a pharmacologist, became China’s first Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine for her discovery of the anti-malaria treatment artemisinin. She said her work was also influenced by TCM.