DCTD’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine Welcomes Delegation from Cancer Institute, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

On September 26-27, 2016, staff from DCTD’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) hosted a delegation of scientists from Cancer Institute, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS) at NCI. The goals of this meeting were to continue scientific collaborations and expand development of future initiatives related to research on cancer prevention, treatment, and palliation. Specific outcomes of the September 2016 meeting included:

• OCCAM, NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR), and Cancer Institute, CACMS staff reviewed two current collaborative studies being performed in CCR laboratories with Cancer Institute, CACMS visiting fellows. The Chinese medicine (CM) compounds, gambogic acid and cryptotanshinone, and their actions on prostate cancer cell inhibition through the reactive oxygen species pathway and tumor cell growth inhibition and dendritic cell maturation, respectively, are being studied. 
• A potential collaboration between CCR’s Molecular Targets Laboratory and Cancer Institute, CACMS was discussed, involving plans for a new screening and chemistry study on CM compounds and mixtures.

Years of research collaborations involving this international team include the following highlights:

• Studies of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) anticancer herbal medicines clinically used in China, including Sheng Qi formula (SQF) and Fufang Kushen Injection (FKI), as well as the TCM drugs, cryptotanshinone and berberine, have been performed in laboratories at CCR and Cancer Institute, CACMS. Six scientific publications and one meeting proceeding resulted from this work. Seven visiting fellows from China have trained in CCR laboratories.
• On December 19, 2012, Dr. Douglas R. Lowy, then Deputy Director of NCI, and Dr. Hongsheng Lin, Director of Cancer Institute, CACMS signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to support collaborative research on the TCM drug, FKI.
• In February 2014, Cancer Institute, CACMS proposed the formation of an international consortium that would improve scientific communications and collaborations, improve CM research quality for oncology applications, find potential promising CM drugs, and modernize cancer CM research. With support from OCCAM, Cancer Institute, CACMS, and scientists and practitioners from the U.S., China, Korea, and Australia, a planning meeting for the International Consortium for Chinese Medicine and Cancer (ICCMC) was held on the NIH campus in November 2014, and a follow-up meeting was held in Dalian, China in October 2015. The consortium proposed the following projects:
  • Develop guidelines for CM oncology clinical trials, and define the minimum or essential components for designing and reporting such trials
  • Develop standard treatment protocols and evaluation procedures
  • Establish a database to organize data related to Cytochrome P450 enzyme interactions between CM herbs and oncology drugs
  • Perform dose-finding and quantification of phytoestrogens from CM herbs
  • Announce the establishment of the consortium at the Society of Integrative Oncology meeting on November 5, 2016 in Miami, FL

Attendees of the October 2015 ICCMC meeting in Dalian, China (l to r: Jie Li, collaborator; Hongsheng Lin, collaborator; Jeffrey D. White, OCCAM, NCI; Libin Jia, OCCAM, NCI; Wei Hou, collaborator)