On the Use of Chinese Medicine to Treat Malignant Tumors
Malignant tumor is one of the great threats to life today. Worldwide each year new cases reach 10 million; deaths exceed 6 million — the third leading cause of common death. In China, malignant tumor leads in city mortality and is second in countryside mortality. Annually 1.6 million cancer cases; 1.3 million deaths. Incidence is rising. To overcome cancer is urgent.
TCM cancer treatment has made breakthrough progress. With herbal treatment here, the effective rate exceeds 90%; the cure rate for early- and mid-stage cancers is about 70%; for late-stage, about 15%. Where complete cure is not possible, long-term survival with tumor is. We should also see clearly: cancer treatment is still in research; not as easy to treat as other diseases. To help patients understand and cooperate, we share our preliminary findings.
1. The features of malignant tumor
1. Not local — systemic. The poison spreads throughout the body. Metastasis and recurrence are inherent. Surgery, radiation, chemo only locally kill. Metastasis strictly is not movement of cancer cells but eruption of the toxin at weak sites.
2. Cancer cells grow infiltratively — like tree roots — and cannot really be separated from normal cells. Surgery, radiation, chemo may kill the bulk but not eradicate; they injure surrounding normal cells; some poison liver, kidney, spinal cord — causing systemic functional decline.
3. Cancer cells are not foreign — they are mutations of normal cells on the body's own material base, sharing properties with normals. So drugs cannot easily distinguish — hence all-killing toxicity. Nor can they selectively nourish normal cells, because mutated cells absorb and consume nutrients far more strongly than normals.
4. The cause of cancer, though it has external triggers (cold, pollution), is mainly inner injury: long depression, over-worry, persistent stress, over-strain, emotional dysregulation. Plus poor habits — dietary lapses, smoking-drinking, sexual excess, sleep lack — disturb meridian flow, slow qi-blood, lower immune function. These cannot be addressed by drugs alone — they call for the patient's own emotional regulation. That greatly limits the doctor's and drug's control.
2. The TCM treatment steps
1. **First, save life** — keep the person, then treat the disease. On arrival, patients often have poor appetite, fatigue, weight loss; some have ascites, low fever, pain. Treat first by opening the qi-blood, supporting the right, restoring; promote yin-yang balance and storehouse-bowel harmony. Appetite up, sleep up, stool-urine smooth, spirit up — restore, mobilize, lift body function; suppress further malignant production.
2. Experimentation shows: in functional regulation, some cancer cells reverse to normal; some malignant poor-differentiation becomes lower-malignant well-differentiation. Spread and metastasis come under control.
3. By the patient's condition and constitution — usually together with the first step — begin cleansing: send out tissue that cannot be reverted, its metabolites, and toxins from drug use, pollution, chemo, etc.
Some say "TCM is slow." On surface — to cut or melt a mass at once looks beneficial — but the form is reduced, not the root; and irritation may speed metastasis. TCM combines restore-and-firm-the-root with resolve-toxin-and-cleanse. The drug is auxiliary; the body's own function leads. So long as our prescription accords with the body's inner laws of recovery, the patient day by day walks toward health.
3. Reactions during treatment
1. In the early period, since focus is on restoration and tumor control, the visible mass does not visibly shrink. As malignant transforms to benign, mass volume may slightly grow — normal; hold the course.
2. In cleansing, toxins exit as invisible gas (burps, cough, sneeze, flatulence) or visible matter (mucus, sputum, sweat, vomit, diarrhea); heavier cases may pass dark-purple clots, black stool, putrid flesh, or clear / turbid sticky fluid. (Cancer cells are blood-engorged tumors; when resolved and excreted, blood in stool is normal under medicine.) Brief pain-worsening may occur — unblockedness brings pain; with continued medicine and free qi-blood flow, the pain eases.
3. Because the patient is still in overall dis-regulation and weak, response to abrupt weather is more pronounced than in normals. At weather and season turns, especially guard against colds and epidemics; contact the doctor at once.
4. The patient's cooperation
Overcoming cancer is the doctor's duty and the patient's hope. Because cancer often arises from emotional inner injury, the patient's emotional steadiness and regular routine play an irreplaceable role.
1. "Contented tranquility, empty non-being — true qi follows; essence and spirit held within — from where should illness come?" Put aside all extraneous thought; do not sink into work or life's petty cares; do not calculate days left or rush to arrange after-life. With an optimistic spirit, calm heart, open broad-mindedness — that will greatly help qi-blood flow and bring the bowels-and-storehouses to harmony.
2. Trust yourself — trust the body's self-recovery. The body's stored energy is enormous; its recovery capacity strong. With a free spirit, the body's effect plays at the largest. By contrast, patients who think "I have a terminal disease; I'm sure to die" and spend each day in low spirits are far harder to treat — same drugs, much weaker effect.
3. Do not overstrain. Especially when feeling better after taking medicine, do not forget you are still a not-fully-recovered patient. Family should understand mood swings from illness; let the patient enjoy family warmth. If circumstances permit, change of home environment — fresh air, clean water — aids recovery.
4. Many dietary contraindications apply during medicine — necessary for the weak body and lowered detox, and to avoid drug conflict for best effect. Follow strictly; do not be careless. After cure and stopping medicine, restore prior habits, but in moderation.
5. Confidence and persistence often bring miracles. Once you choose TCM, follow the doctor's orders, keep the contraindications, and do not be shaken by other therapies. Some critically-ill patients improve on TCM and are then turned into surgery-fit or chemo-fit — pressed into other therapies — and the result reverses. Other therapies' interference seriously cuts TCM's effect. If a switch is truly needed, discuss with the doctor first.
In sum: the patient and family's resolve is the doctor's confidence. TCM is, compared to current other methods, the most promising and least painful. We aim for full cure; we do not abandon the late-stage patient's spark — at least improving the blood picture, easing pain, lifting quality of life, prolonging life.
Optimism is life; persistence is victory. Let doctor and patient join hands and greet humankind's new dawn over cancer.