US National Cancer Institute–China Collaborative Studies on Chinese Medicine and Cancer

Since 2007, the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM), together with the Cancer Institute of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CICACMS), institutes at China Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, have engaged in collaborations on Chinese medicine (CM) and cancer research. Through these collaborations, CM drugs and compounds have been studied at NCI labs. This paper summarizes the discoveries and progress on these research projects, exploring the aspects of cancer prevention, botanical drug mechanisms of action and component analysis/quality control (QC), and anticancer activity screening. These and other related projects have been presented in various jointly convened workshops and have provided the backdrop for establishing a new organization, the International Consortium for CM and Cancer, to promote international collaborations in this field.