Death of Chinese actress ignites traditional medicine debate

The death of a Chinese actress who used traditional medicine, instead of chemotherapy, to treat her cancer has ignited heated debate throughout the Asian country.

Xu Ting died this month after at first opting against chemotherapy, to instead undergo treatment using traditional Chinese medicine. Source: Weibo

Xu Ting, 26, was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system, in July.

Controversially, she opted against chemotherapy, and announced over social media that she would instead turn to traditional Chinese medicine.

She said after seeing the pain chemotherapy caused in her friends, she did not want to go through with it.

"I don't want to let chemotherapy torment me to the point where I look unrecognisable, and have lost all my money, and myself," Ms Xu posted on Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, when she revealed her diagnosis.

           

Actress Xu Ting openly documented her cancer treatment on social media. (Supplied) Source: Supplied

Ms Xu documented her treatment to her 300,000 fans via the site, using TCM methods such as cupping and needle insertion.

The Beijing actress was one of seven children who said she never wanted to be seen as a burden, and shied against her family spending money on her.

“Over the past five years, I worked very hard to support the large family. I made money to pay for my younger brother’s tuition fees, pay my parents debts and even buy a house,” she posted.

“The pressure made me breathless.”

As her condition deteriorated, she did turn to chemotherapy, but by then she had become critical.

She died on September 7.

"May Buddha bless all the pain away from me, it's really too too painful," she wrote in her final post.

Ms Xu’s sister made the claim that her TCM practitioner turned out to be a fraud.

                             

Ms Xu turned to chemotherapy as her condition worsened. (Supplied) Source: Supplied

In the week following her death, debate has risen in China, whether she would have survived if she started chemotherapy right away - and whether the traditional methods inevitably killed her.

"Listen to me, Chinese medicine is absolutely useless to cure cancer, if you don't want to listen to me at least listen to a doctor," posted one of Ms Xu’s Weibo fans.

Beijing Evening News journalist, Hou Jiang said that claims traditional Chinese medicine can’t cure cancer were based on “ridiculous logic”.

“Even after undergoing chemotherapy, a lot of patients still die, will these people say western medicine is also a sham?” he argued.

“Both types of medicine have their own strengths and weakness. The point is you need to use them together," another Weibo follower posted.

Scientists in the UK have begun to research if Chinese medicine can actually treat cancer.