Han Taiyun, a pharmacist in the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, learned from folk Chinese medicine that arsenic, Calomelas (mercurous chloride) and Venenum Bufonis are used to treat lymphoid tuberculosis and cancer. 197 1 in March, Han Taiyun changed them into water injections, called 7 13 or Aileen injection, which were effective for some tumor cases through intramuscular injection. It was popular in the local area for a while, but it was too toxic to quit.
Zhang Tingdong from the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University cooperated with Han Taiyun to continue this work. After 1972, on the one hand, Zhang Tingdong and others mainly focused on leukemia, instead of indiscriminately applying it to many diseases. On the other hand, they tested the ingredients of "Ailing" respectively, and found that arsenic is effective as long as it is available, calomel brings nephrotoxicity, and toad venom brings side effects of raising blood pressure, and the latter two have no therapeutic effect.
Zhang Tingdong and "Zhang Ailing No.1"
Their first paper was published in 1973. Zhang Tingdong, Zhang Pengfei, Wang Shouren and Han Taiyun reported in Heilongjiang Medicine that 6 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia were treated with Ailing injection (later called Ailing 1). They clearly know that the main chemical components of arsenic are "arsenic trioxide" and a small amount of "calomel (low mercury chloride)". After treatment, the symptoms of 6 patients improved, and 1 patient with acute change of chronic leukemia was also effective. The article also mentioned that the therapeutic effect of acute leukemia is still under study.
1974, they published in Journal of Harbin Medical University "Aileen 1 Injection and Treatment Based on Differentiation of Symptoms and Signs for 17 Cases of Leukemia" signed by the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University and the Laboratory Department of the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University, and summarized 1973 to/kloc. From 65438 to 0976, the Chinese Medicine Department of the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University wrote the Clinical Literature Report of 5 Cases of Acute Leukemia Treated with Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, and introduced the diagnosis and treatment process and various clinical forms of 5 patients who were completely relieved after treatment.
1979, Rong Fuxiang and Zhang Tingdong reported in the Journal of New Medicine that two patients survived for four and a half years and three years after being treated with "Aileen 1", both of which were acute myeloid leukemia.
1979, Zhang Tingdong and Rong Fuxiang published their second paper in Heilongjiang Medicine, entitled Aileen 1 Injection and Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Based on Syndrome Differentiation, and summarized their treatment of 55 cases of acute myeloid leukemia from 1973 to 1978. Among them, 1973 ~ 1974 was used to treat 23 cases, and 1 975 ~ 1 976 was used to treat 20 cases./kloc- For each case, according to the blood picture classification, and have a clear curative effect observation. All 55 cases were improved in different degrees, the remission rate was 70%, and 12 cases were completely relieved, with little side effects on patients. They also injected "Ailing 1No." into 12 rabbits at a dose ten times that of adults, and no toxic effects were found in heart, liver, spleen and kidney. If 1973' s paper is the groundbreaking paper that they discovered "Ai No.1", then 1979' s paper is the representative paper of Zhang Tingdong and others on "Ai No.1".
There are three important questions worth discussing: 1) Whether Zhang Tingdong and others know exactly that the function of treating cancer comes from "Ailing 1", rather than other traditional Chinese medicines and chemotherapy western medicines used at the same time; 2) Do they realize that the function of "Ailing 1" comes from arsenic trioxide without mercury? 3) Do they know the effect of arsenic trioxide on acute promyelocytic leukemia?
Zhang Tingdong and Rong Fuxiang gave clear answers to these three questions in 1979 "Heilongjiang Medical" magazine: 1) Three patients (one adult and two children) only used "Ailing 1" and did not need other traditional Chinese medicine or chemotherapy western medicine, which also showed the curative effect. At that time, children had lived for four years and adults had lived for nine months. When using other Chinese medicines, they also pointed out that other Chinese medicines are not used to treat leukemia, but to support the patient's physical condition; 2) On the page 1 1, they pointed out that the effective component of "Ailing 1" is arsenic trioxide; 3) On pages 10 and 1 1, they clearly pointed out that it has the best curative effect on promyelocytic leukemia.
It can be said that by 1979, the paper published by Zhang Tingdong in cooperation with different colleagues clearly laid our understanding today: arsenic trioxide can treat leukemia, especially acute promyelocytic leukemia (FAB type M3 leukemia in France, the United States and Britain, that is, acute promyelocytic leukemia, APL).
198 1 year Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University (the last footnote of the article indicates guidance: Zhang Tingdong; Written by: Li Yuanshan and Hu; Participants:,, Rong Fuxiang, Sun Hongde, Li, Wu Hematology Laboratory) published "Clinical Summary of 73 Cases of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated by Aileen 1 with Syndrome Differentiation" in Heilongjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine, and reported that Aileen 1 had a complete remission rate of 24% and a total remission rate of 86%. At the 1982 National Symposium on Treating Leukemia with Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Zhang Tingdong and Li Yuanshan exchanged the Clinical Experimental Study of Ailing 1 on Treating Acute Myeloid Leukemia-Analysis of 22 Cases of Complete Remission, and Discussion on the Classification and Clinical Efficacy of 98 Cases of Non-lymphocytic Leukemia.
1984, Zhang Tingdong and Li Yuanshan published "Clinical Analysis and Experimental Study on the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia with Aileen 1" in the Journal of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, and summarized 8 1 cases of acute myeloid leukemia they had treated since 1972, and analyzed that 22 cases were completely relieved. They pointed out that among the 22 cases of complete remission, 7 cases were M2 type and 15 cases were M3 type leukemia. They also pointed out again that "M3 is particularly effective". 1985 Zhang Tingdong and others wrote "Clinical Observation and Experimental Study on the Treatment of Acute Non-lymphocytic Leukemia with Aileen 1 (7 13) Injection".
In 199 1, Sun Hongde, Ma Ling, Hu, Zhang Tingdong, Rong Fuxiang, Wang, Feng Xiuqin published 16, which should be an extension of 65438. They reported that from 1974 to 1985, 32 cases of acute promyelocytic leukemia were treated with "Ailing 1", 19 cases were completely relieved, and 16 cases survived for more than five years.
1992, Sun Hongde, Ma Ling, Hu and Zhang Tingdong published "Aileen 1 Treatment of 32 Cases of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia with TCM Syndrome Differentiation" in China Journal of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, which was regarded as "experience exchange" and was essentially the same as the paper of 199 1. Strangely, this article is basically quoted by English literature. This paper, like the paper of 199 1, is in Chinese, and the content is only a brief introduction to the paper of 199 1, but the actual discovery was first published in 1973, and it has been made clear that 1979 is correct. However, the article of 1992 is essentially the same as the article of 1979, which does not change the composition of the drugs used or the indications. It can be seen that international counterparts know nothing about the age of this important discovery.
Note: A document "Sleeping Beauty" was found in February 20 13, Pediatrics of Chaoyang People's Hospital: Experience of Treating Leukemia with Arsenic Combined with Chemotherapy, Liaoning Anti-Cancer News, 1972.4. This shows that in 1972, Jinzhou Chaoyang People's Hospital has treated leukemia with arsenic trioxide, but there seems to be no treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia. The historical position of this article needs further evaluation. See the blog post of Science Network: Zhang Tingdong, it is essential to connect the preceding with the following: the conjecture about arsenic trioxide used to treat leukemia.