PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS

Guang An Men Hospital, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

http://www.cintcm.ac.cn/gam/e_index2.html

As a result of the 2006 OCCAM-sponsored conference Traditional Chinese Medicine and Cancer
Research: Fostering Collaborations; Advancing the Science, NCI gained a new fellow, Dr. Jie Li, from Beijing, China.

Dr. Li of the Research Center of Oncology at Guang An Men hospital in Beijing attended the conference as a participant, along with the director of his department, Dr. Hongsheng Lin, a guest speaker who presented her clinical study of improving median survival time of lung cancer with a TCM intervention. Dr. Li’s specialty is utilizing the TCM mixture Sheng Qi formula, a Chinese medicine compound, to decrease the side effects of chemotherapy.

During the conference, Drs. Lin and Li met with Dr. O.M. Zack Howard, a staff scientist with the Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation (LMI), Cancer and Inflammation Program, Center for Cancer Research at NCI-Frederick. LMI, OCCAM, and Guang An Men hospital agreed that a co-funded postdoctoral training at NCI, sponsored by the Office of International Affairs, was a good way to begin collaborating on this specific area of cancer CAM research.

Dr. Li has been working with Dr. Howard to explore the anticancer effect and immune-stimulating effects of the Sheng Qi formula. A novel aspect of their project is the use of a murine model of inflammatory breast cancer to assess the impact of the herbal formula on the function of myeloid immunosuppressive cells.

The Chinese government’s Ministry of Science and Technology has agreed to provide funds to extend Dr. Li’s fellowship.