Myth 1 Tumor cannot be prevented and cannot be treated Tumor has been proved to be a disease greatly influenced by environment, and its occurrence is closely related to dietary structure, living habits, environmental pollution and so on. For example, with the improvement of living standard, Chinese people’s diet structure has also changed, and the incidence of colorectal cancer has increased. The two most important points to prevent malignant tumors are: no smoking and reasonable diet. Tumor is not an incurable disease. If “three early stages” can be achieved, the treatment effect is satisfactory. For example, the cure rates of stage I cervical cancer, breast cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer are above 90%; the cure rates of early choriocarcinoma and early testicular seminoma have reached or are close to 100%; liver cancer, which is known as the “king of cancer”, is now possible to be treated, and the five-year cure rate of early microscopic liver cancer has reached over 70%; some tumors, even if they have reached advanced stages, have been cured. For example, the five-year cure rate of stage III and IV choriocarcinoma can reach 83% and 53% respectively. Many small hospitals do not have the conditions and equipment to carry out comprehensive tumor treatment, but they also treat tumors due to economic interests; some non-tumor specialists have insufficient basic theoretical knowledge and clinical experience in tumor diagnosis and treatment, but they also carry out radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Tumor is concerned with reasonable, regular and systematic comprehensive treatment, especially the first treatment often plays a decisive role in prognosis. An unregulated surgery or an unreasonably designed radiotherapy or chemotherapy program may lead to residual tumor, antagonism and drug resistance, which will bring great difficulties to the next treatment and even eventually lead to the failure of the whole treatment. Some patients or family members often listen to some rumors and spend a lot of money to buy the so-called “ancestral secret formula” and “single formula” that can cure all tumors. Some patients or their family members often listen to some rumors and spend a lot of money to buy the so-called “ancestral secret” and “single prescription” to cure their tumors, and even pray to God for a miracle. These “cancer treatment professionals” and “ancestral families” have not only received no formal medical education, but also have no medical knowledge at all. In the end, patients are financially constrained and their conditions become more and more complicated, making the original curable lesions develop into incurable advanced tumors. Myth 4: Doctors and family members conceal the disease Doctors do not tell patients the real disease was considered to be a protective measure for patients, but the consequence of this is that patients do not know their own condition, so they will not actively cooperate with the treatment, especially they will miss the best time for surgery, and it is difficult to achieve the best results. Some patients’ family members are afraid to let patients go to oncology specialist treatment because they are worried about the blow to their emotions after knowing their condition, and they are unwilling to carry out postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery, so that when tumor recurrence and metastasis are treated again, it is too late to regret. Myth 5 A program or a kind of Chinese medicine can cure all tumors A certain doctor has cured a patient, so many patients tend to rush to this doctor, thinking that their disease can also be cured by this doctor. In fact, tumor is complex, curing one patient is not equal to curing all patients, and the treatment of tumor is mostly comprehensive, and the radiotherapy and chemotherapy programs used for different tumors are generally different. In addition, there are many patients who blindly believe that a certain Chinese medicine can cure all diseases, but health care products and drugs are two concepts after all, some Chinese medicine can only play a supplementary role, if you want to rely on health care products or a certain Chinese medicine to treat tumor, it is a big mistake. Misconception 6 Treating experimental results as clinical efficacy Nowadays, there are a variety of “anti-cancer drugs” advertisements all over the world, most of which claim to be highly effective against this tumor and that tumor by experiments. The so-called “experimental results” are more than 95% of the results of animal experiments, not the results of clinical applications, which is just an advertising technique of businessmen. There are differences between people and animals, if all the drugs that work on animals work on people, then we will not be so hard to research drugs, and drugs will not be so expensive. Even if a certain anti-cancer achievement reported by the regular media has won the national or provincial science and technology progress award, it is still mostly in the laboratory research stage, and there is still a long way to go before it can be applied in the clinic. Myth 7 Cancer is cured if cancer is removed, and the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy are too great Many patients and their families do not understand the metastatic and invasive characteristics of tumor, and think that surgery to remove tumor is cured. The blind and ignorant optimism will often delay the follow-up treatment of patients. Many patients and their families hear that radiotherapy and chemotherapy have serious toxic side effects and are unwilling to accept the treatment and let the tumor develop. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy can damage normal cells while killing cancer cells, resulting in side effects such as white blood cell reduction, nausea and vomiting, hair loss, etc., for subclinical metastases (very small tumor cells that can metastasize to the whole body at an early stage and are difficult to be detected by current clinical diagnosis technology) that still exist in the body after surgery, only chemotherapy can kill them. For the various side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, many drugs are available to prevent and alleviate them. Most medical oncologists have mastered the techniques of preventing and dealing with the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. There are many excellent oncologists in China who have deep attainments in certain fields of tumor treatment. For example, there are specialists in oncology surgery specializing in tumor surgery, specialists in medical oncology specializing in tumor chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biological therapy and nutritional support therapy, and specialists in radiation therapy specializing in tumor radiotherapy. In large cancer hospitals, the subspecialties are more detailed, such as breast tumor department, head and neck tumor department and so on. Even if they are all medical oncologists, different people may have different research focus and treatment expertise. Therefore, one should not blindly subscribe to a certain specialist, but should choose the corresponding specialist according to the different diseases and treatment methods. Myth 9 Cancer pain does not use painkillers Pain of advanced tumor is an important issue that affects patients’ survival quality. However, many patients and their families, including even a few medical personnel, wrongly believe that patients with advanced tumor do not need painkillers as a last resort. They are worried that if they use painkillers too early, the painkillers will be ineffective when the pain is aggravated later; they are worried about the adverse effects of painkillers; they are worried that once they use them, they cannot stop them; they are worried about addiction and so on. In response to these situations, the World Health Organization has developed a specific three-step pain relief method at the end of the 20th century, and China has gradually promoted it. Experts believe that pain relief is beneficial, pain relief increases confidence, pain relief is also safe, pain relief is not addictive, and pain relief has no extreme amount. In treating cancer pain, we advocate early, adequate, regular and individualized administration of drugs. Opioids and fentanyl are better tertiary analgesic drugs for advanced cancer patients. Dulcolax is not advocated at present. Myth 10 It is impossible for tumor patients to return to society Although tumor will recur and people are therefore afraid of recurrence, it is not a lifelong disease and can be recovered. Patients with malignant tumor without recurrence for 5 years are equivalent to being cured. This is because if the subclinical metastases are not eliminated, after 5 years of proliferation, they should have reached a level that can be diagnosed. If no more cancer cells are found after 5 years, the patients can be considered cured and they can live and work freely as normal people.