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When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and China reported the first case to the World Health Organization in December 2019, there was no evidence-based treatment to combat it. With the catastrophic situation that followed, materialised by a considerable number of deaths, researchers, doctors, traditional healers, and governments of all nations committed themselves to find therapeutic solutions, including preventive and curative. There are effective treatments offered both by modern medicine and traditional medicine for COVID-19 today. However, other therapeutic proposals have not been approved due to the lack of effectiveness and scientific rigour during their development process. Proponents of modern medicine prefer biomedical therapies while in some countries, traditional treatments are used regularly because of their availability, affordability and satisfaction they bring to the population. In this paper, we propose a transactional medicine approach where the interaction between traditional and modern medicine produces a change. With this approach, the promoters of traditional medicine and those of modern medicine will be able to acquire knowledge through the experience produced by their encounters. Transactional medicine aims to be a model for decolonising medicine and recognising the value of both traditional and modern medicine in the fight against COVID-19 and other global emerging pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: A significant proportion of people with cancer use forms of complementary medicine. Many factors contribute to cancer including some which are modifiable by the patient, such as stress, poor nutrition, vitamin D deficiency, poor sleep and lack of physical activity. This paper discusses why it is important that oncologists help cancer patients to address such factors, and why an integrative approach which combines evidence-based complementary medicines or therapies with orthodox treatment might lead to better outcomes for cancer patients. A significant proportion of cancer patients use forms of complementary medicine or therapies. An integrative approach to cancer management combines conventional medicine with evidence-based complementary medicines/therapies and lifestyle interventions, for the treatment and prevention of disease and the optimisation of health. Its basis is a holistic one; to treat the whole person, not just the disease. It makes use of adjunct technologies which may assist the clinician in diagnosis of early carcinogenesis and monitoring of treatment effectiveness. Many factors contribute to the development of cancer including some which are largely modifiable by the patient and which oncologists may be in a position to advise on, such as stress, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, poor sleep, and Vitamin D deficiency. An integrative approach to addressing these factors may contribute to better overall health of the patient and better outcomes. Evidence-based complementary medicine approaches include the use of supplements, herbal medicine, various practices that reduce stress, and physical therapies. Individualised to the patient, these can also help address the symptoms and signs associated with cancer and its orthodox treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies include a wide range of procedures and products that are often used by cancer patients to directly combat cancer and to protect normal cells from the toxic effects of conventional therapies. Most often, their use is self-prescribed based on a collection of scattered information from websites and advice from relatives or friends. In this paper, we examined the potential known benefits and harms associated with the most commonly used alternative treatments to provide a practical guide for caregivers and patients. CAM is used by about 40% of cancer patients in Western Countries, with peaks of 80% for breast cancer patients. Cancer patients use CAM to boost immune function, to control cancer symptoms and treatment-related side effects, and to improve health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and survival. Unfortunately, self-prescription of natural remedies in cancer patients can lead to unexpected toxicities and can reduce the effectiveness of cancer therapy. Although CAM usually refers to all the "natural or organic" products/methods that are generally considered less toxic, there are concerns about drug interactions, especially in patients participating in clinical trials with experimental agents. Despite the claims of the promising and potential benefits made by prescribers, many CAMs lack clear scientific evidence of their safety and efficacy. Given the widespread use of CAM—both clearly declared and overt—in this review, we focused on the most important known data on the risk of interactions between biologics and oncology drugs with the goal of opening up CAM in accordance with the meaning of integrative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies exploring the effectiveness of traditional Korean medicine (TKM) treatment for facial palsy have mainly focused on Bell's palsy, and there are few studies on the effectiveness of TKM treatments for traumatic facial palsy following mandibular fracture. The patient was a 24-year-old Korean man with left-sided facial paralysis following a left mandibular fracture. Surgery was performed for the fracture and the facial palsy was treated using conventional medicine (CM) treatments for approximately 3 months, but there was no improvement observed in the patient's condition. Subsequently, the patient underwent an integrative Korean medicine treatment regimen consisting of acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, cupping, moxibustion, and herbal medication for a duration of 2 months. After 2 months of treatments, the House–Brackmann facial grading scale changed from Ⅴ to II and Yanagihara's unweighted grading score increased from 9 to 34. This case presentation and previous studies of traumatic facial palsy using TKM treatment show that TKM treatment may be considered a complementary or alternative treatment method to CM treatment in patients with traumatic facial palsy. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42023445051. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, accounting for 90% of primary liver cancer) was the sixth most common cancer in the world and the third leading cause of cancer death in 2020. The number of new HCC patients in China accounted for nearly half of that in the world. HCC was of occult and complex onset, with poor prognosis. Clinically, at least 15% of patients with HCC had strong side effects of interventional therapy (IT) and have poor sensitivity to chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), as a multi-target adjuvant therapy, had been shown to play an active anti-tumor role in many previous studies. This review systematically summarized the role of TCM combined with clinically commonly used drugs for the treatment of HCC (including mitomycin C, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, sorafenib, etc.) in the past basic research, and summarized the efficacy of TCM combined with surgery, IT and conventional therapy (CT) in clinical research. It was found that TCM, as an adjuvant treatment, played many roles in the treatment of HCC, including enhancing the tumor inhibition, reducing toxic and side effects, improving chemosensitivity and prolonging survival time of patients. This review summarized the advantages of integrated traditional Chinese and modern medicine in the treatment of HCC and provides a theoretical basis for clinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]