1 Conclusion

1 Conclusion

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is an acquired malignant disease of hematopoietic stem cells, accounting for the third highest incidence of leukemia in China. In traditional Chinese medicine, CML falls under categories such as “Xulao,” “Jiju,” “Xuezheng,” and “Aibing,” generally considered to arise from deficiency leading to disease, disease leading to deficiency, or a mixture of both deficiency and excess. Pathogenic excess includes heat-toxin, blood stasis, warm heat, phlegm-heat, and damp-heat; pathogenic deficiency involves insufficient organ qi, congenital insufficiency, acquired malnutrition, emotional injury, impaired spleen function leading to internal phlegm accumulation, or external pathogenic invasion causing organ qi failure and obstructed qi-blood circulation, or pathogenic toxins transforming into fire and heat, scorching the vessels and causing nosebleeds. All these pathological manifestations are closely related to blood stasis. When various pathogenic factors invade the body and penetrate through the meridians to reach the organs and bone marrow, qi stagnation and blood stasis become the key pathogenic mechanisms. If blood stasis is not eliminated, new blood cannot be generated, resulting in various mixed deficiency-excess clinical syndromes. As stated in “Xuezheng Lun”: “The root of blood loss is blood stasis.” This underscores the inseparable relationship between the theory of blood stasis and the pathogenesis of CML. Therefore, in treatment, the primary focus should be on eliminating pathogenic factors; only after removing pathogenic toxins, blood stasis, and phlegm can the body’s righteous qi gradually recover. If these pathogenic factors are not removed, they may eventually transform into heat and enter the營血, depleting righteous qi, burning yin essence, ultimately leading to depletion of essence and blood and death.

One of the important clinical symptoms of chronic myelogenous leukemia is hepatosplenomegaly. Clinically, treatment often focuses on promoting blood circulation and resolving blood stasis, supplemented by methods such as clearing heat, detoxifying, reinforcing righteous qi, and nourishing yin, with significant therapeutic effects. Based on the theories of traditional Chinese medicine and combined with the characteristics of CML pathogenesis, we believe that Professor Pei’s “Lanzhou Formula” plays an important role in treating CML. Applying the “Lanzhou Formula” alongside Western chemotherapy can accelerate the decline of white blood cells back to normal levels, reduce splenomegaly, inhibit proliferation of granulocytic cells in the bone marrow, significantly improve patients’ quality of life, prolong survival, delay progression to the blast phase, reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy, and deliver excellent long-term outcomes. This study demonstrates that combining the “Lanzhou Formula” with hydroxyurea not only adheres to the principles of TCM syndrome differentiation but also addresses the adverse reactions associated with hydroxyurea, showing favorable therapeutic effects on CML. Comparison of efficacy between the two groups reveals that multiple indicators in the integrated TCM-Western medicine group outperform those in the Western medicine-only group, indicating better overall efficacy. Traditional Chinese medicine has been used to treat CML for over thirty years; how to more effectively use Chinese herbal medicines in conjunction with chemotherapy will remain a key research direction for the medical community today and in the future.