In Chinese medicine, it is believed that the occurrence of breast cancer is related to the external sensation of the six sexes, the accumulation of evil toxins, or the lack of good mood, liver and spleen injury, and the loss of regulation of the flush and the stagnation of qi and blood, and the lesion is most closely related to the liver, spleen, kidney and flush. If the liver and spleen are not healthy, phlegm and dampness will grow inside the spleen, which will lead to stagnation of phlegm and clotting of qi and phlegm, which will lead to the disease; if the liver and kidney are insufficient, and if the qi and blood are not regulated, then the qi and blood will not run smoothly, which will lead to clotting of qi and blood, which will block the breast lobe and lead to the disease.
At this time, it is very important to control the local tumor lesion because it keeps releasing toxins to invade the whole body and invade the surrounding normal cells, and it may metastasize and spread at any time, just like a time bomb, threatening the patient’s life safety. Therefore, if local lesions can be controlled, they should be controlled as early as possible by surgery and radiotherapy. However, even for early stage tumors, after extensive radical treatment, the tumor cells may still metastasize through blood and lymphatic fluid or spread by local infiltration. For example, in early stage breast cancer, radical surgery or extended radical surgery has been done in time, but there are still cases of spread.
Recently, Chinese herbal medicine is often used before and after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to improve the patient’s tolerance of receiving treatment and to reduce the toxic reactions and adverse effects after treatment. After being subjected to various anti-tumor treatments such as modern medicine, long-term use of traditional Chinese medicine after basic control of the disease has good effect in consolidating the efficacy and preventing recurrence.
Principles of TCM treatment for tumor:
Combination of overall and local treatment
Combination of identification of evidence and pain
Combination of helping the positive and eliminating the evil
Combination of treating the root cause of the disease and treating the symptoms in an urgent manner
The principles used in TCM to guide clinical treatment of diseases are based on the four diagnoses of looking, smelling, inquiring and cutting, observing the disease, analyzing the evidence according to the manifestation of tongue and pulse, and using the theoretical system of TCM to determine the legislation, prescription and medicine.
The main methods of TCM treatment for tumor
According to the etiology and pathogenesis of malignant tumor and the law of development, the main TCM treatment methods are as follows.
(1) Blood activation and stasis removal method: It is a treatment method to promote blood flow and dissipate blood stasis accumulation.
The formation of blood stasis can be due to Qi deficiency, Qi stagnation, blood heat, blood cold, etc. Therefore, the clinical application of the method of invigorating blood stasis can include Qi and blood circulation, benefiting Qi and blood circulation, warming the meridians and blood circulation, clearing heat and blood circulation, and attacking blood stasis. According to the patient’s symptoms, analyze the etiology and development of blood stasis, and choose each method for treatment.
Commonly used drugs to invigorate blood stasis include: Danshen, safflower, peach kernel, trigonelline, curcuma longa, pericarpium, ground beetle, red peony, wang bureu xing, soapberry, frankincense, myrrh, stone see-through, wuling lily, leech, tannin, zelen, motherwort, etc.
According to the research of modern medical experimental methods to activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis, it is confirmed that many drugs have various effects such as improving microcirculation, anti-coagulation, inhibiting the growth and metastasis of cancer, improving the immune function of the body, and preventing the hematopoietic function of bone marrow from being inhibited by chemotherapy drugs.
(2) Heat-clearing and detoxification method: It is a method of treating the actual heat caused by heat toxin with heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs of cold nature.
Heat toxicity is the main pathogenic mechanism of tumor at a certain stage. When heat toxicity symptoms appear, it should be treated with heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs in time. In addition, because many heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs have the function of removing toxins produced by tumor tissues and controlling the growth and development of tumor, clinicians can add heat-clearing and detoxifying anti-tumor drugs when treating tumor patients without obvious heat and toxin manifestations, and often achieve better results.
The commonly used anti-tumor drugs for clearing heat and detoxification are: bitter ginseng, samphire root, lobelia, seven-leaved one flower, stone cypress, white flowered snake’s tongue, half branch lotus, fenugreek, winter lingzhi, half lotus, verbena, earth poria and so on.
(3) Phlegm-eliminating and firm-softening method: It is to treat tumors belonging to the category of phlegm-damp coagulation in Chinese medicine with drugs that eliminate phlegm, open the ligaments, soften firmness and disperse nodules and dry dampness. In addition to the effect of resolving phlegm and dampness, these drugs also have the effect of dispersing and softening masses. Clinically, they can also be used to treat some tumor patients with phlegm-damp symptoms, such as chest congestion, body heaviness, vomiting and salivation, coughing and phlegm, lumps that do not disappear after a long time, slippery tongue coating and moist pulse.
Commonly used anti-tumor drugs for resolving phlegm and softening firmness include: Semen, Tennantine, Saponaria, Radix Platycodon, Psidium Guajava, Seaweed, Kombu, Oyster, Cigarea, Yellow Herb Seed, Mustard Seed, Lutong, etc.
Commonly used anti-tumor drugs to dry dampness and promote dampness include: bitter ginseng, Huanglian, Scutellaria, Huangbai, Poria, Poria, Coix seed, Mouton, Zedoary, Zeqi, Qianqi, Qomai root, etc.