A Case of Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Korean Medicine Therapy Alone

This report presents a case that shows a significant anticancer effect of Korean medicine therapy (KMT). A 79-year-old man, who was diagnosed as stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in December 2012, was treated with KMT including intravenous pharmacopunctures and oral herbal medicine from February 22, 2013, until September 2013 without any surgical intervention, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The intravenous pharmacopunctures were the wild ginseng pharmacopuncture, Cordyceps sinensis pharmacopuncture and Trichosanthes kirilowii pharmacopuncture. The oral herbal medicine used was soramdan, made of cultivated wild ginseng. The effectiveness of this therapy was evaluated with computed tomography and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance scale. The size of the tumor mass was markedly decreased and the ECOG performance scale was also improved. These results suggest that KMT alone can be an effective method to treat NSCLC.