title: Cancer Prevention and Therapy: Integrating Traditional Korean Medicine Into Modern Cancer Care.
abstract: In spite of billions of dollars spent on cancer research each year, overall cancer incidence and cancer survival has not changed significantly in the last half century. Instead, the recent projection from the World Health Organization suggests that global cancer incidence and death is expected to double within the next decade. This requires an "out of the box" thinking approach. While traditional medicine used for thousands of years is safe and affordable, its efficacy and mechanism of action are not fully reported. Demonstrating that traditional medicine is efficacious and how it works can provide a "bed to bench" and "bench to bed" back approach toward prevention and treatment of cancer. This current review is an attempt to describe the contributions of traditional Korean medicine (TKM) to modern medicine and, in particular, cancer treatment. TKM suggests that cancer is an outcome of an imbalance of body, mind, and spirit; thus, it requires a multimodal treatment approach that involves lifestyle modification, herbal prescription, acupuncture, moxibustion, traditional exercise, and meditation to restore the balance. Old wisdoms in combination with modern science can find a new way to deal with the "emperor of all maladies."
authors.affiliation: Department of Korean Internal Medicine, Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seong Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Korean Internal Medicine, Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ji Hye
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA aggarwal@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Bharat B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D055670:Medicine, Korean Traditional; D019122:Meditation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019413:Qi; D016709:Yin-Yang
chemical_list: D028321:Plant Preparations
keywords: TKM; acupuncture; cancer; medicinal plant; moxibustion; prevention; therapy; traditional Korean medicine