The use of arsenic in traditional Chinese medicine to treat leukemia reflects the responsibility of traditional Chinese medicine

　　“Chinese medicine is a great treasure house that we must work hard to discover and improve so that it can serve not only the Chinese people, but also all mankind. ”Zhang Tingdong, 83-year-old tenured professor of the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University, said excitedly. When Tu Youyou, a Chinese female pharmacologist, won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, people couldn't help but think of another scientist who uses traditional Chinese and western medicine - Zhang Tingdong, who has been committed to the research of integrating traditional Chinese and western medicine in the treatment of leukemia, and made a foundational contribution in the use of (arsenic trioxide) to treat leukemia, allowing the public to once again feel the magical charm of traditional Chinese medicine.

　　Although Zhang Tingdong was born in Western medicine, an accidental opportunity made him love traditional Chinese medicine and he has been "addicted" to the research of traditional Chinese medicine for a long time. In the 1970s, Zhang Tingdong was appointed as the leader of an expert group to conduct research on traditional Chinese medicine, light powder, and toad venom to prepare drugs to treat cancer, and developed the "713" new anti-cancer drug. Later, Zhang Tingdong's research team made bold innovations and finally refined it into a sub-injectable solution to specifically attack acute promyelocytic leukemia. Saved many cancer patients who were sentenced to "death". The miraculous effects of traditional Chinese medicine in treating cancer and various difficult and complicated diseases have been verified by various information channels and have become an indisputable fact.

　　What makes Zhang Tingdong regretful is that he is already old. Otherwise, if he had been a few years younger, he might have made new achievements in the field of traditional Chinese medicine and benefited patients all over the world. This raises a traditional topic for people: In today's increasingly utilitarian era, how to inherit and develop traditional Chinese medicine, a treasure of the Chinese nation? The country should include the popularization of traditional Chinese medicine knowledge as an important part of scientific education and national quality education. The government, media, schools, especially community media should take publicity, popularization and promotion of TCM knowledge as their obligatory responsibilities, and publish easy-to-understand TCM readers and practical manuals. Hold general open classes on traditional Chinese medicine in schools and communities. In the fight against counterfeiting, the public's vague understanding of traditional Chinese medicine should be corrected and the scientific origin of traditional Chinese medicine should be returned. The country should take preferential measures such as exempting tuition fees just like it encourages normal students to encourage young people who are interested in traditional Chinese medicine to apply for traditional Chinese medicine colleges and majors, attracting them to enter the field of traditional Chinese medicine, where they are interested in learning, have expertise in learning, and use what they learn.

　　Governments at all levels should increase the allocation of public finances to the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine, increase incentives, and encourage experts and scholars in traditional Chinese medicine to carry out academic exchanges and scientific research. The teacher-instruction system of traditional Chinese medicine should be reformed, break the tradition of passing on male rather than female, break through the rules and regulations, actively promote the mutual complementation of traditional Chinese and western medicine, and make a perfect combination, and open up a wide range of folk traditional Chinese medicine talents with special skills, so that they have legal medical qualifications and enjoy the same treatment as western medicine experts; widely use traditional Chinese medicine, so that they can enter hospitals, pharmacies and community outpatient clinics. On the basis of implementing the system of TCM doctors sitting in the clinic, the government subsidizes the price of TCM medicines and encourages special family TCM doctors, so that people can receive effective, simple and cheap TCM services without leaving home. 　　“Good wine is not afraid of deep alleys." More and more foreign friends favor traditional Chinese medicine. For example, an Australian patient was diagnosed with lifelong infertility by Western medicine. After careful treatment by doctors at Tongrentang Sydney Branch, she successfully became pregnant, which became a legend. But at present, traditional Chinese medicine is encountering bottlenecks in international standards when going abroad. Sufficient homework should be done in the standardization of traditional Chinese medicine, and the processing technology of traditional Chinese medicine should be improved. The most critical thing is to achieve reasonable dispensing, reduce toxicity and increase efficiency. On the one hand, advanced technology and scientific testing methods should be used to minimize the toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine; on the other hand, the intellectual property rights and dominance of traditional Chinese medicine should be established to occupy the commanding heights of traditional Chinese medicine technology and enhance the reputation of traditional Chinese medicine in the world.

　　Traditional Chinese medicine talents should be imported from abroad, and preferential and incentive policies should be introduced to allow more traditional Chinese medicine families and practitioners to enter the country, develop Chinese medicine overseas, and provide Chinese medicine treatment and health care services to more foreign friends; provide formal Chinese medicine guidance to foreign patients, follow the principle of "syndrome differentiation and treatment" of Chinese medicine, and standardize the use of medicines. At the same time, we should actively guide the majority of TCM practitioners to actively participate in the international exchange and promotion of TCM, and use platforms such as Confucius Institutes to accept and cultivate "foreign students" who love TCM.

　　Traditional Chinese medicine not only serves the Chinese people, but also serves all mankind. In recent years, generations of Chinese medical scientists have made important progress in the clinical application of arsenic. The diagnostic and therapeutic effects of arsenic on pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer and other cancers are also being further studied. To make traditional Chinese medicine, a national treasure, an "international treasure", wisdom and countermeasures must be initiated immediately, starting from the two levels of top-level design and pragmatic innovation, to solve the problems of modernization and self-renewal of traditional Chinese medicine, change the phenomenon of "emphasis on Western medicine, and neglect of traditional Chinese medicine", so that more people, especially the younger generation, can take on the important task of reviving "traditional Chinese medicine", so that traditional Chinese medicine can be passed down from generation to generation, making it a forerunner of the great rejuvenation of Chinese culture.