Lung cancer belongs to the category of “lung accumulation”, “Xiben” and “lung gangrene” in Chinese medicine. In the book of “Nangjing”, it was proposed 2,000 years ago that “the accumulation of lung is called “Xiben”, and later in the book of “Dongming Baojian – Carbuncle and Gangrene”, it was said that “if a carbuncle and gangrene occurs in the internal organs, we should examine the internal organs. The word “gangrene” was used to determine the malignant nature of lung cancer.
The pathological mechanism of lung cancer formation is eloquently discussed in “Miscellaneous Diseases Source and Stream Rhinocandle – Source of accumulation, obstruction, and fluttering”: “Evil accumulates in the chest, blocking the airway, and the air is not pronounced, for phlegm, food, and blood, all have to fight with the positive, and when the evil wins, the positive is not allowed to control it, so the lump is formed. Li Zhongzi in “The Essential Readings of Medicine”, when discussing the causes of “accumulation”, pointed out that “accumulation is caused by a deficiency of positive qi, followed by the entrenchment of evil qi”.
Zhang Jinyue, on the other hand, clearly believes that people who are weak and out of balance tend to have the disease of accumulation.
Insufficient vital energy and dysfunction of internal organs are the main internal causes of tumor. After lung cancer occurs, if it is not treated in time, it will hurt lung energy and consume lung yin, which will make the vital energy of the body even more deficient and promote further spread and development of cancer. In the early stage, the tumor is still small, the positive energy is still strong, and the positive energy is light, so we can adopt the principle of attacking mainly, or attacking big and supplementing small, or attacking first and then adjusting. In the middle stage of tumor development to a certain stage, the evil is strong and the positive qi is also injured, most of them are in the stage of “evenly matched”, so it is appropriate to take the principle of both attack and tonic.
In the late stage, the disease is more serious, the positive energy is weakened, and the “positive deficiency and evil flourish”. Even after surgery, deficiency of positive qi is also common in early stage patients. Therefore, Chinese medicine treatment should mainly help positive qi and supplement with elimination of evil. In recent years, “nourishing the positive accumulation will eliminate the deficiency.
In recent years, the therapeutic principle of “nourishing the righteousness and eliminating the accumulation of the disease” has gradually become a consensus.
I. Treatment by type
1. Qi and Yin deficiency type
Main symptoms: cough with little phlegm, sticky and gray phlegm, not easy to get out, low coughing sound, or phlegm with blood, or vague chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, white and white face, spontaneous sweating or night sweating, bad wind, dullness, dry mouth without much drinking, light red tongue with thin coating, weak pulse.
Treatment: Benefit Qi and nourish Yin, detoxify and eliminate stagnation.
Glycyrrhiza glabra 6g. Decoction with water, one dose daily.
Note: The lung is a delicate organ, which is the main organ of qi, the division of respiration, and likes to moisten and eviscerate. Therefore, the deficiency of lung accumulation is most common due to deficiency of qi and yin and fluid. The majority of patients with this type of disease are in the middle or late stage of tumor, with weak constitution and deficiency of both qi and yin, so when treating with qi and yin medicines, attention should be paid to “deficiency without tonic”.
The benefit of qi should not be too pungent and hot, in order to prevent the excess of qi from generating internal heat, ginseng and astragalus are good products for benefit of qi, with fried atractylodes, cloud ling, yam, coix seeds, etc., which are very effective. Patients with lung accumulation should be cautious with raw earth and ripe earth. Although the two medicines are the main medicines for nourishing yin, they are blamed for being nourishing and greasy, because lung lesions are mostly accompanied by phlegm and dampness, and nourishing and greasy products are easy to help produce phlegm from dampness and cause or aggravate lung infections; secondly, raw earth is cold, and patients with lung accumulation are old and weak, with spleen deficiency and dullness. The author often uses the clear and moist products such as South ginseng, North ginseng, child ginseng, maitong, asparagus, Yuan ginseng, lady’s mantle and wolfberry to nourish lung yin. Patients with prolonged illness often have “shortness of breath when moving” and other pathologies from the lung and kidney “kidney does not receive qi”.
2.Qi deficiency, phlegm and dampness type
Main symptoms: cough with sputum, thin and white, shortness of breath and shortness of breath, worse when moving, less breath and lazy speech, chest tightness and dullness, fatigue, white and white face, cold and wind, spontaneous sweating, swelling of the face or lower limbs, loose and thin stools, light and fat tongue or with tooth marks on the side, white or white greasy moss, moist and slow or smooth pulse.
Treatment: Benefit Qi and strengthen the spleen, resolve phlegm and detoxify.
(research and punch), 6 grams of licorice. Take a decoction with water, one dose daily.
Note: Patients of this type are mostly those with prolonged illness and obesity combined with lung infection. Lung Qi deficiency, phlegm and dampness in the blockage, often appear chest tightness, stomach dullness, thick and greasy tongue coating, or yellow or white, at this time do not mistakenly think that dampness, dampness in the blockage, but simply use aromatic open drainage, or penetrate dampness, or dry dampness, which is easy to make the lung Qi more injury, and commit the “deficiency of deficiency”. To pay attention to the patient’s qi deficiency as the basis, phlegm and dampness as the standard, treatment should be the main principle of replenishing qi and supporting the righteousness, accompanied by phlegm dispel damp.
Dampness and phlegm drink internal obstruction, there is a deficiency of the real, deficiency must be accompanied by shortness of breath, weakness, movement is worse, spontaneous sweating and other evidence, the clinical evidence is not difficult to distinguish. “Treatment must seek the root of the disease”, so the lung should be supplemented to benefit the qi, strengthen the spleen to dispel dampness, coupled with cough to resolve phlegm, in order to achieve results.
3. Lung deficiency with heat and toxin congestion
Main symptoms: violent cough, thick yellow or white sputum, or blood in the sputum, shortness of breath and shortness of breath, fever, bitter and dry mouth, chest tightness and chest pain, vicious wind and fear of cold, spontaneous sweating or night sweating, weakness and dullness, yellow urine and constipation, dark red tongue with yellow greasy coating or yellow dryness, fine or smooth pulse.
Treatment: Tonify the lung and clear heat, resolve phlegm and detoxify.
, 3 grams of licorice. Take a decoction with water, one dose daily.
Note: Due to the tumor itself and the obstructive symptoms caused by the tumor, patients with lung accumulation are highly susceptible to lung infection, especially in the middle and late stages of the disease. At this time, the patient is weak and the evil is strong, so attention should be paid to “over-attack and over-supplement”. Therefore, the treatment should not only treat the infection but also disregard the deficiency of positive qi, and the medication should not be too heavy.
At this time, it is advisable to use drugs that benefit the qi and support the righteousness, strengthen the spleen, dry dampness and resolve phlegm but are not pungent and dry, such as dang ginseng, fried atractylodes, cloud ling, yam, coix seeds, and Chen Pi to support the righteousness, and then with drugs to clear heat and detoxify, dispel dampness and resolve phlegm, in order to have significant effects. If there are conditions, choose bacterial sensitive, less toxic side effects of antibiotics combined application is more effective.
4.Phlegm and toxin stagnation type
Main symptoms: chest pain and back pain, pain with a fixed location, such as pins and needles, tightness, coughing, or vomiting bloody sputum, shortness of breath, chest tightness, dry and bitter mouth, weakness, constipation, or dull face, blue lips, pestle-like fingers, dull red or purple tongue or petechiae, tortuous veins under the tongue, thick and greasy moss, thin or thin pulse.
Treatment: Relieve Qi, resolve blood stasis, detoxify and disperse nodules.
Prescription: Lung Accumulation IV: 12g of fried peach kernel, 12g of Chuanxiong, 12g of red spoon, 12g of angelica, 12g of scutellaria, 6g of rhubarb, 12g of forsythia, 12g of Chai Hu, 12g of Yuan Hu, 9g of Pu Huang, 9g of wuling fat, 9g of Curcuma longa, 12g of fried hedgehog, 12g of Danshen, 12g of safflower, 30g of white flowered snake’s tongue, 12g of vinegar aromatic herb, 12g of whole scorpion, 2 centipedes. (research and punch), 6 grams of licorice. Take with water decoction, one dose daily.
Note: Chest pain is a common symptom in patients with lung accumulation, “pain is also inaccessible”. “The lung is the master of all qi, and the lung is facing all the veins. If the positive qi is insufficient, the evil toxin will take advantage of the deficiency and enter the lung, and if the evil stagnates in the lung, the qi will not flow smoothly and the blood will be blocked, resulting in stagnation of qi and blood. When phlegm and dampness congest the lung, the lung Qi is blocked and blood stasis is aggravated, so phlegm and stasis are both mutually transforming and causal, easily forming a vicious circle.
Therefore, the treatment at this time is not to relieve pain, but to invigorate blood to promote blood stasis, regulate qi to move qi stagnation, dispel phlegm to resolve phlegm obstruction, detoxify toxin to dispel toxin knots, adjuvantly clear heat, adjuvantly pass the ligaments to relieve pain, so that the qi and blood vessels and ligaments can pass without pain.
5, chemotherapy stomach heat type
Main symptoms: nausea, vomiting, dullness, stomach distension or burning sensation in the stomach, dry mouth without drinking, vomiting when drinking or eating, vomiting saliva, even vomiting bile, dizziness, weakness, red tongue with thin yellow coating or dry, thin or slippery pulse.
Treatment: Clear heat and benefit the stomach, resolve phlegm and stop vomiting.
Formula: Chemotherapy Reaction Soup: Fuxianxia 9g, Zhuru 12g, Chenpi 12g, Hovenia 9g, Houpa 12g, Mu Xiang 9g, Huang Lian 12g, Dried Ginger 6g, Fried Atractylodes 12g, Poria 12g, Bai Kao 12g, Rhubarb 6g, Raw Astragalus 9g, Radix Codonopsis 12g, Licorice 3g. Three slices of ginger are used as a primer and taken with water decoction, one dose daily.
6. Radiotherapy Yin deficiency type
Main symptoms: In addition to symptoms related to lung accumulation, dry mouth and tongue, dry and itchy pharynx, yellow and red urine, dry stools, or fever and night sweats, red tongue with little coating and fine pulse.
Treatment: Clear heat and nourish Yin
Since the body has to repair the damaged tissues, the reconstruction of microcirculation is very important. Therefore, the addition of blood-activating drugs such as Salvia miltiorrhiza, Radix et Rhizoma Paeoniae, and Radix Rehmanniae is very effective in improving the symptoms.
Due to the different quality and condition of patients, the clinical manifestations are also different, but it is common for patients to have a certain type of symptoms, and their manifestations are mostly a combination of primary and secondary evidence, which are intertwined. Therefore, treatment must comply with the principle of discriminatory treatment, distinguish the main and secondary, measure the relationship between the whole and the local, and determine the weight of supporting the positive and eliminating the evil in order to achieve results.
Second, symptom identification and treatment
1, phlegm is difficult to be coughing: Sheng Han Xia, Sheng Nan Xing, Chuan Bei Mu, Tian Zhu Huang, Hai Clam Shell, Quan Gua Lou, Niu Huang, Bai Mu Zi, Zhu Li, etc.
2.Cough: Radix Platycodon grandiflorus, Juniperus bark, Qian Hu, Fried almonds, Semen scabra, Aristolochia, Rice husk, Aster, Radix et al.
4, Chest and back pain: Yuan Hu, Panax notoginseng powder, August Zha, Boswellia, Myrrh, Vine root, Seven-leaved lotus, Bear bile, Hossein, etc.
5, fever: Baiwei, antelope horn, ghost needle herb, silver bupleurum, ground bark, honeysuckle, septoria, fishy grass, forsythia, raw gypsum, etc.
6, yellow pus phlegm: soapberry, raw barley, winter melon seed, orris, scutellaria, rasberry, zhebei, Zhi Mu, reed stem, peach kernel, Qian Hu, mulberry white skin, etc.
7.Shortness of breath and chest water: Scapularia scabra, Che Qian Zi, Chuan Jiao Mu, Long Qi, Saliva control, etc.
8.Chinese herbs with anti-cancer effects.
(1) Clearing heat and detoxifying class: white flower and snake’s tongue grass, half a lotus, snake berry, bitter ginseng, seven-leaved one flower, lobelia, vine root, stone see through, wild buckwheat root, scutellaria, shamrock, etc.
(2) Softening phlegm and firmness: Xia Ku Cao, Sheng Nan Xing, Cat’s Claw, Sheng Oyster, Juniperus, Seaweed, Ze Qi, Kun Bu, etc.
(3) Activating blood circulation, resolving blood stasis and dispersing nodules: Sanguisorba, Curcuma longa, Xu Changqing, Salvia divinorum, Zelenia leaf, Ghostly arrow feather, Ginseng Panax, etc.
(4) Others: sarsaparilla, whole scorpion, centipede, mosquito six grain, iron tree leaves, hibiscus leaves, wild grape vine, ice ball seed, dung beetle worm, etc.