Chinese medicine has many benefits after breast cancer surgery

With the progress of society and lifestyle changes, there are more and more breast cancer patients around us, and breast cancer is increasingly threatening the health of women. There are two things that breast cancer patients are most worried about after surgery: one is the decrease of quality of life; the other is the fear of distant recurrence or metastasis. The development of breast cancer is a process of deficiency leading to actuality, deficiency due to actuality, and a mixture of actuality and deficiency. The original deficiency is manifested in the deficiency of the spleen that cannot produce qi and blood, and the deficiency of the kidneys that cannot regulate the ramifications. As a result, the spleen and kidney qi and yin are depleted, and the function of the punching point cannot function normally, which results in fatigue, spontaneous sweating, night sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, hot sweating, menstrual disorders, and other symptoms of qi and yin deficiency and disorder of the punching point. Why are there so many symptoms? This is to briefly talk about the relationship between the breast and the Chong Ren. The Punch and Ren Vessels in the human body are closely related to menstruation, breast and fertility functions of women. The Punching and Ren Vessels start in the cell, the Ren Vessel follows the abdomen, goes up to Guan Yuan and reaches the chest, the Punching Vessel goes up with the umbilicus, reaches the chest and disperses. The Kidney resides in the lower jiao, and is the master of reproduction, and is the root of the Punch and Ren. The Liver and Kidney are of the same origin, and the Punch and Kidney Vessels travel together, and are nourished by Kidney Yin; and Kidney Qi produces Tian Kuei, which originates from the Heaven and is hidden in the Kidney, and can stimulate the Punch and Ren to flourish; the Punch and Ren starts from the uterus and is connected to the breasts, and its blood and Qi promote the development of the uterus and breasts and their functional activities. According to the Compilation of Surgical Cases, “Chong Ren is the sea of qi and blood, the upper part of the body is the breast, the lower part is the menstruum”, thus the changes of Chong Ren affect the physiological and pathological changes of the breast and uterus. The statistics of clinical research show that about 80% of postoperative breast cancer patients are identified by Chinese medicine as having the above-mentioned Qi-Yin deficiency and Qi-Ren imbalance. If patients can persist in taking Chinese medicine for a period of time, the above-mentioned symptoms will improve to a great extent, which can improve the quality of life of patients and make them have a good mental state and greatly enhance their confidence in overcoming the disease. The direct impact on the survival of breast cancer patients after surgery is the recurrence or distant metastasis of the tumor, how to prevent and control the recurrence or metastasis after surgery and how to prolong the survival time is still a medical problem. If the patient finishes radiotherapy or chemotherapy, if the estrogen receptor is positive, endocrine therapy can be followed; but if the estrogen receptor is negative and endocrine therapy is ineffective, Western medicine has no further prevention and treatment methods, and the simple regular review is not crucial to prevent the development of the disease. In contrast, TCM can provide individualized evidence-based treatment from the patient’s actual condition. Dr. Cheng Xufeng of the Department of Breast Diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine pointed out that retrospective studies conducted by several well-known medical institutions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, on clinical practice in the past thirty years have proved that postoperative breast cancer patients can effectively prevent recurrence or metastasis after surgery if they are treated with TCM. Basic studies such as animal experiments also show that Chinese medicine to prevent recurrence and metastasis has good anti-tumor effects. In major cities in China, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, more than 90% of breast cancer patients are taking Chinese medicine normally after surgery and receiving standardized treatment from TCM. Nowadays, academic circles have confirmed that the advantage of TCM treatment for breast cancer lies in the post-operative TCM treatment, which can be an effective adjuvant treatment for breast cancer. Especially for patients with “triple negative” breast cancer, although endocrine therapy is not available in Western medicine, TCM has opened up a treatment path. However, the treatment of breast cancer by TCM is not simply a matter of finding a TCM doctor, taking a pulse and looking at the tongue, and boiling Chinese medicine at home. Even if the initial diagnosis is deficiency of qi and yin and imbalance of the ramifications, it is necessary to further identify different symptoms such as loss of nourishment of the ramifications, deficiency of the ramifications, deficiency of heat in the ramifications, deficiency of cold in the ramifications and failure of the ramifications. In order to help the patient to complete the standardized TCM treatment of breast cancer and achieve good results, we suggest the patient to go to a breast specialist. Therefore, patients are recommended to receive systematic TCM treatment from a breast specialist. Chinese medicine can also reduce the toxic side effects of radiotherapy, effectively reduce the gastrointestinal reactions during radiotherapy, and improve the completion rate of radiotherapy for patients. Postoperative skin flap necrosis and postoperative swelling of the affected upper limbs after breast cancer surgery should be promptly combined with external Chinese medicine treatment methods, which can rapidly control symptoms, achieve good results and reduce patients’ pain. Premature abandonment, negative treatment or excessive functional exercise can only bring pain to the patient. Therefore, TCM can be involved in the whole treatment of breast cancer, which is clinically important for the physical recovery of postoperative breast cancer patients, improving the quality of patients’ survival, increasing the survival rate and reducing the recurrence and metastasis rate.