A group of Brazilian doctors have visited Beijing's Xiyuan Hospital to observe the integration of traditional Chinese therapies into cancer treatment.
At Xiyuan Hospital, part of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, the visiting delegation witnessed a demonstration by Xu Yun, director of the oncology department.
Xu performed acupuncture on a cancer patient who, after just one minute of treatment, slowly raised her arm unaided, despite previously being too weak to move.
"We find out many things that we don't see in Brazil. But our expectation is to do this in the future, the same thing like here, the cancer treatment," said Valeria Toaiari De Mattos, one of the visiting doctors.
"For cancer treatment, we combine chemotherapy and radiotherapy with traditional therapies: herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, and acupoint applications," Xu said.
Acupuncture is now well known in the West. But more and more people are coming to China to better understand the broader world of traditional Chinese medicine.
For decades, treatment focused on killing cancer cells, often at great cost to the rest of the body. But doctors say Chinese medicine takes a different path: it aims to strengthen the immune system, restore balance, and help patients live better even with cancer.
"Traditional medicine isn't just a supplement. We give equal weight to Chinese and Western approaches. Surgery and chemotherapy come first, then Chinese medicine helps with the recovery and quality of life. During follow-ups, when Western care mostly observes, TCM leads again by strengthening the body and clearing any remaining cancer cells," Xu said.
The approach is gaining attention worldwide. Training groups like the one from Brazil are visiting China in growing numbers, hoping to bring this knowledge home with them.
"China can help a lot of countries, a lot of people in the world, because they don't know there's herbal to treat side effects of many treatment, western medicine treatment," said Paulo Cesar Gonclaves Pereira, director of the Brazilian Chinese Medicine School, and a member of the visiting group.
At the same time, Chinese doctors studying abroad also carry the mission of sharing the country's medical heritage with the world.
"During my visit to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, we offered courses to help Western doctors understand herbal medicine. We designed clinical pathways so doctors can choose the right formulas. We also built databases to collect feedback and improve results," Sun Lingyun, associate chief physician of the department of oncology of Xiyuan Hospital, recalled her exchange trip to the United States.
The hospitals are even trying a new kind of "joy therapy": blending classical Chinese music into medical treatment, using sound to calm the mind and support healing.
Saturday marks the World Traditional Chinese Medicine Day.
Brazilian delegation explores Chinese cancer therapies at Beijing hospital
