中草药的使用已有数千年的历史，对于各种疾病包括肿瘤的治疗都取得了十分宝贵的人体经验。丰富的中草药资源也为寻找新抗癌药提供了重要的物质基础。从传统中医药理论结合现代科学发现从4个方面阐述了进一步从中草药中发现新抗癌药的途径，以期对天然产物来源的新抗癌药物的发现起到一定的启发与促进作用。这4个方面分别是：根据传统中医理论发现抗癌药，包括清热解毒药、活血化瘀药、调节免疫药（补气扶正药）及有毒中草药（以毒攻毒）；从近年发现的抗肿瘤先导化合物中寻找；通过普筛或高通量筛选从中草药提取物中寻找和依据药用植物亲缘学的原理寻找。

Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) have been used for thousands of years and a great number of experiences used for human body have been obtained for treating various diseases including tumor. The rich CHM resources could provide the important material bases for new anticancer drugs. In this article, the ways to find new anticancer drugs based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) and modern scientific research from four aspects, which could promote the finding of new anticancer drugs from natural products. The four aspects are: to find the new anticancer drugs based on the theory of TCM, including heat-clearing and detoxicating medicine, blood-activating and stasis-resolving medicine, immune regulating medicine (qi-tonifying and reinforcing healthy qi medicine), and toxic CHM (toxicity against toxicity); to find the new anticancer drugs from lead compound; to find the new anticancer drugs from CHM extract by general screening and high-throughput screening, and to find the new anticancer drugs based on the pharmaphylogeny.

科技部国际科技合作项目（2007DFB31610）