Participants

Participants

The characteristics of patient participants are listed in
Table 2. For all patients, the diagnosis, treatment and follow-
up had been conducted according to Western procedures
and technologies. Participants had seven cancer
types in various stages (four patients having metastatic
disease), with cancer histories ranging between 5 months
to 21 years. Ages ranged from 47 to 83 years at the time of
the interview. The youngest age at diagnosis was 41 years.
Two had severe comorbidities (heart disease and diabetes).
In the TCM professionals’ focus group, the TCM physicians
from Beijing Cancer Hospital had received standard
university training in both Western medicine and TCM.
The TCM physicians from Bai Cao TCM cancer clinic had
received formal TCM university training. Interestingly,
the chief TCM physician and the qigong master from Bai
Cao clinic were themselves cancer survivors and had
received both conventional and TCM therapies for breast
cancer and malignant rhinopharyngocoele respectively.