As cancer rates rise globally,standard care is being questioned; new approaches involving immune therapies are emerging.With this shift comes a corresponding shift in the use and potential of herbal medicines and extracts.The focus of this article,which has evolved from a presentation at the Second Beijing International Symposium on Integrative Medicine(BISIM May 19-20,2012),is particularly on Chinese medicine,but is generalizable to Eastern medicine more broadly and to other herbal traditions.Until recently,herbal and related treatments have been used as adjuvants to conventional care - for reducing side-effects, enhancing cytotoxicity,and sometimes,undesirably counteracting the efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation.Now,in the context of a new class of immune-based cancer therapies,herbal and other complementary modalities are looked at as enhancers of the body’s immunity. As cancer rates rise globally, standard care is being questioned; new approaches involving immune therapies are emerging .With this shift comes a shift shift in the use and potential of herbal medicines and extracts.The focus of this article, which has evolved from a presentation at the Second Beijing International Symposium on Integrative Medicine (BISIM May 19-20, 2012), is particularly on Chinese medicine, but is generalizable to Eastern medicine more broadly and to other herbal traditions.Until recently, herbal and related treatments have been used as adjuvants to conventional care - for reducing side-effects, enhancing cytotoxicity, and sometimes, undesirably counteract the efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation. Now, in the context of a new class of immune-based cancer therapies, herbal and other complementary modalities are looked at as enhancers of the body’s immunity.