Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC for short) is one of the common malignant tumors, which originates in the nasopharynx and can spread up to the skull base, intracranially, and metastasize down to the cervical lymph nodes or hematologically to the bone, liver, lung and other tissues. This disease belongs to the scope of “nasal abyss”, “nasal gangrene”, “epistaxis” and “nagging catarrh” in Chinese medicine.
If the disease is not treated, the heat toxin and phlegm will fight with each other and gather in the neck where the bile and shaoyang meridians travel and become phlegm nuclei; if the evil of heat toxin damages the blood channels and stasis of blood, headache and redness of the face can be seen.
If the disease develops to advanced stage, the evil toxin stays for a long time and depletes the qi and blood, it is mostly a mixed evidence of deficiency and reality, which can be seen as a thin body, white face, neck cancer nucleus or headache like a knife, slanted mouth and eyes.
If radiotherapy depletes yin and fluids, the symptoms of depletion of yin and fluids, such as dry mouth and drinking, tinnitus, etc.; if chemotherapy is administered, the symptoms of nausea, poor appetite, fatigue and weakness, such as damage to the spleen and stomach and deficiency of qi and blood, are more common.
If nasopharyngeal cancer pulse is stringent and slippery, it is mostly actual evidence of phlegm, depression, toxicity and stasis, and weak and feeble pulse, which is deficient in yin essence and qi and blood. Red tongue, or dark red, with petechiae, white or yellow coating, or greasy, more real; red-red or light tongue, thin or less coating, more deficiency.
Due to the location of nasopharyngeal cancer patients and the early symptoms are not obvious, surgery cannot cure them, so most patients with nasopharyngeal cancer need to adopt radiotherapy treatment. However, the side effects of radiotherapy are great, so we can consider the combination of traditional Chinese medicine to prolong the survival rate of nasopharyngeal cancer patients.
According to different patients, TCM physicians can formulate specific treatment methods and use medicine accordingly, giving Chinese medicine treatment such as benefiting qi and nourishing yin, generating fluid and moistening dryness, regulating spleen and stomach, nourishing liver and kidney, etc., which can improve patients’ immune function, enhance their ability to resist cancer, improve their physical and nutritional status, reduce and prevent toxic side effects and sequelae of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, control the development of cancer, reduce recurrence and metastasis, prolong survival and improve It can play a positive role in controlling the development of cancer, reducing recurrence and metastasis, prolonging survival and improving the quality of survival.