Exploring Systems Biology Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medicine Cancer Research

Cancer is a chronic, complex disease. With advanced high-throughput technologies i.e. various -omics approaches, molecular imaging and computer technologies, conventional medicine and its research of cancer is leading to the emergence of systems biology. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) focuses on the diseased person as a whole to formulate the therapeutic strategies to create a holistic systemic approach to treat the imbalanced systems of a person. TCM practices are usually descriptive, and empirical. To facilitate cross discipline dialog, and potentially research collaboration, it is important to move TCM research toward systems biological approaches. Analysis of FY2006 and 2007 NCI funded TCM research grants portfolio and research approaches will be discussed.