Preventing and Controlling Cancer Complications: How to Choose the Timing of Intervention? Dec. 18, 2014 – Despite the rising incidence of malignant tumors, the overall level of treatment and efficacy of tumors is improving with the increase in treatment options and updated concepts. For example, while a decade or so ago, the 1-year survival rate for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer was only 15 percent, now, thanks to advances in comprehensive tumor treatment methods, the 1-year survival rate for patients with this most common type of clinical tumor exceeds 40 percent. The scientific prevention and control of complications is a major factor in this. When do complications appear? The damage caused by tumor not only refers to the tumor itself, but also covers complications. In terms of causes, complications are divided into two categories. One category is related to treatment, and the other category refers to those caused by tumor invasion or metastasis. In treatment: pain and infection after surgery; decrease in white blood cells and platelets, nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy; radiation damage from radiotherapy are all related to treatment and are called treatment-related complications. In contrast, complications such as bone metastasis, chest and ascites, intestinal obstruction and cancer fever are directly related to the progression of tumor, which are called tumor-related complications. Treatment-related complications are related to the treatment. With the end of treatment, some complications will disappear on their own, and those that cannot disappear on their own will be effectively controlled or relieved through treatment. Tumor-related complications mostly occur in middle and late stage cancer patients, and whether they will occur or not is closely related to the condition of the patient, the timing of treatment and the intervention of the doctor. Some patients with early stage cancer can obtain good results and achieve clinical cure through surgery alone without complications. However, some patients may develop several complications simultaneously or sequentially. How to choose the timing of intervention? The harm of tumor complications is mainly reflected in three aspects: firstly, it increases patients’ pain and affects their quality of life; secondly, it may hinder the treatment of the tumor itself; thirdly, certain serious complications such as pulmonary embolism, severe infection and bleeding may even be life-threatening. Based on the complete examination and assessment of cancer patients’ condition, experienced doctors predict whether patients will have complications, whether they need to intervene in advance and how to intervene? Early intervention can make complications appear as little or as late as possible. Once complications appear, there are various means of intervention available. For example, obstructive pneumonia is a common complication of central lung cancer. If some effective measures such as local radiotherapy, intervention and Chinese medicine are used in advance according to the specific condition, it may effectively prevent or delay the patient from falling into respiratory distress. For patients with lung cancer combined with large amount of pleural fluid, an immediate solution is to drain the pleural fluid by puncture and then inhibit the production of pleural fluid by medication. Through these combined TCM and Western medicine interventions, the patient’s quality of life is improved and time is gained for treatment. Complications often interfere with the tumor treatment plan. When chemotherapy causes bone marrow suppression in patients, chemotherapy has to be temporarily interrupted until the blood cell indicators return to normal, but delaying chemotherapy may affect the previous treatment effect. Another example is that if radiotherapy process causes radioactive pneumonia, there is no doubt that radiotherapy must be suspended to treat pneumonia as a priority. The treatment of the tumor itself will be considered after the condition has recovered.