Actress, 26, dies of cancer after choosing traditional Chinese medicine treatment over 'painful' chemotherapy

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The death of a cancer-stricken actress has sparked a debate in China over whether or not traditional Chinese medicine is a sham.

26-year-old Xu Ting, from Beijing, was diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in July and died of the illness last week.

The woman had deliberately chosen not to undergo chemotherapy; instead she went for cupping, needle insertion and blood-letting, leading many to question whether or not these therapies had contributed to her death.

Tragedy: Chinese actress Xu Ting (pictured) lost her battle with cancer in Beijing last week

Horrific: The 26-year-old had chosen traditional Chinese treatment because chemotherapy was too painful. Picture, from Xu's social media, showed she had undergone a cupping session

Xu announced her illness to her fans on social media on July 9.

In a post on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, the upcoming actress said she had been diagnosed with the critical illness by Beijing Cancer Hospital.

She explained she had decided not to undergo chemotherapy because she had seen the others being 'tortured' by it and they still passed away.

The woman said she decided to follow traditional Chinese medicine.

'I know chemotherapy is extremely painful and it might cause [me] to die faster. So no matter how long I can live, I want to spend every day of my remaining life happily,' Xu wrote on Weibo.

She also said she was one of seven children in her family and had worked hard to earn money in order to pay the rent, support her brother's education and pay off her parents' debt.

In a follow-up post from Xu Ting, uploaded on July 24, Xu said she was receiving traditional Chinese therapies.

Pictures shared by the woman showed that more than a dozen glass cups were placed on her back in a cupping session and bloody stripes had been left on her neck after a skin-scraping session.

In one picture, Xu appeared to experience pain as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner tried to treat her neck.

She wrote in the post that though the Chinese therapies were painful, 'those who are receiving chemotherapy must be going through more pain'.

She also wrote: 'We must be strong and brave. We are lucky because not everybody has the chance to challenge their limits.'  

Xu Ting's health appeared to deteriorated in mid-August.  

Her sister, Xu Dandan, said on her social media account that the actress's Chinese treatment had failed and she had decided to switch back to chemotherapy.

Xu Ting's sister claimed that the practitioner who had given Xu Ting the traditional Chinese medicine therapies turned out to be a fraud.

During the treatment: Xu Ting said on her social media account that she went for cupping, needle insertion and even blood-letting. The treatment however was also painful

A picture shared by Xu Ting on August 18 showed she had been put on an IV drip inside a hospital ward.

This appeared to be the last social media post by the actress. 

Xu Ting lost her battle with cancer and passed away at 4:20pm on September 7.

Her death has shocked the Chinese society, sparking a debate on whether or not she could have survived had she not chosen to undergo the traditional Chinese therapies.

A topic page, named 'Xu Ting's death and traditional Chinese medicine', has emerged on Weibo. 

The page wrote: 'May Xu Ting live a life without such pain in heaven. There should be no traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in heaven. As such, there should be no sham of such either.'

Once a happy face: Xu's death has sparked a debate over whether or not she could have survived if she had not chosen Chinese medicine. Xu was pictured before she fell ill

There are also people who said Xu's death should not be blamed on traditional Chinese medicine because cancer is hard to cure.

A journalist from Beijing Evening News, named Hou Jiang, said: 'Some people claimed that because traditional Chinese medicine can't cure cancer, it's a sham. This is ridiculous logic.

'Even after undergoing chemotherapy, a lot of patients still die, will these people say western medicine is also a sham?'

Doctor Feng Li from Chinese Academy of Medical Science said a combination of Chinese and western medicine is a better way in helping treat cancer.

Doctor Feng told a reporter from People's Daily Online: 'Neither Chinese medicine or Western medicine could cure cancer once for all. 

'As such, a multi-disciplinary treatment between Chinese and Western medicine could be applied to improve the efficiency of the treatment.' 

However, Doctor Feng also pointed out that Chinese medicine might not have been the best treatment for Xu Ting because her immune system would have been poor at the time.