How to treat malignant tumors?

Abstract: The rapid increase of cancer incidence and mortality has become the most serious enemy threatening human health today. According to modern scientific research on tumor pathogenesis, in the face of a wide variety of therapeutic means and methods with different effects, a practical treatment principle should be formulated in the design of treatment plan, in the idea of treatment principle, according to the grading and staging of malignant tumors and the physical and mental conditions of patients combined with various modern treatment techniques, in order to guide the treatment process of patients with malignant tumors. This is of great importance to guide clinical practice and summarize theories. The effect of malignant tumor treatment depends on the degree of malignancy of the tumor and the response of the tumor cells to the treatment; secondly, it depends on the treatment method adopted for it; more importantly, it depends on the condition of the body and its ability to resist the tumor. The therapeutic effect of the same malignant tumor in different people can be very different; and the same therapeutic method can be used for different malignant tumor patients, the effect is not exactly the same. Therefore, it is necessary to plan a reasonable regimen for patients and carry out long-term concomitant treatment to achieve the best therapeutic effect. With 1.6 million cancer cases and 1.3 million deaths in China every year, cancer has become the most serious threat to human health today. “Conquering cancer” is the strongest and most urgent wish of human beings. According to modern scientific research on tumor development, in the face of a wide variety of treatment methods and approaches with different effects, in the design of treatment plans, a practical treatment principle should be formulated according to the grading and staging of malignant tumors and the physical and mental conditions of patients combined with modern treatment technology to guide the treatment process of malignant tumor patients. This is of great importance to guide clinical practice and summarize theories. The effect of malignant tumor treatment depends on the degree of malignancy of the tumor and the response of the tumor cells to the treatment; secondly, it depends on the treatment method adopted for it; more importantly, it depends on the condition of the body and the ability to resist the tumor. The therapeutic effect of the same treatment method for the same malignant tumor can be very different in different people; and the same treatment method for different malignant tumor patients may not have the same effect. A large number of experiments on the pathogenesis and cell kinetics of malignant tumors prove that the occurrence of any kind of malignant tumor is caused by the normal cells of human body under the action of some or more tumor-causing factors to undergo proliferation, interstitial transformation, mutation and finally become malignant tumor. From carcinoma in situ, developing into invasive carcinoma and then disseminated carcinoma, most of them take 5 to 20 years, and during this long process, they experience a complex struggle between tumor and host. Here, on the one hand, it is determined by the strength of tumorigenic factors, the malignancy degree and number of tumor cells; on the other hand, it depends on the body’s defense resistance to tumor cell invasion, such as the patient’s age, gender, systemic nutrition, endocrine and immune status, etc. Therefore, the development process of a malignant tumor patient and whether it can achieve good therapeutic effect after treatment are never simply the local evolution of the tumor, but the result of the fight between multiple integrated factors of the whole body and mind, and the mutual struggle between the carcinogenic factors and the host, which can be the disappearance of the tumor, the long-term maintenance, or the increase and spread of the tumor. For example, an early stage tumor can grow very slowly or remain intact when the immune function is normal. However, when the body’s defense resistance decreases and the tumor is in advantage in the confrontation between the tumor and the body’s defense, the tumor not only grows faster, but also may metastasize rapidly and even lead to the patient’s death. Therefore, in the treatment of malignant tumors, we should not only choose the treatment plan according to the clinical stage, but also decide the treatment principle according to the immune status of the body. For early stage carcinoma in situ and solid tumors, complete local excision is mostly advocated. Under the condition of better immune function of the whole body, it is completely possible to achieve the purpose of cure. However, for early stage tumors, the larger the scope of resection is pursued, the better. Blindly expanding the scope of surgery may destroy the immune function of the body to a certain extent, but the effect is not good. Reviewing the choice of surgical methods for breast cancer, which has gone through the process of simple mastectomy, radical surgery, expanded radical surgery, super radical surgery, and back to simple partial excision plus comprehensive treatment, proves that the scope of surgery is not the bigger the better. Ultra-radical surgery is not in accordance with the biological principles of the breast itself and severely disrupts the function of the lymphatic defense system around the breast. In the past, we have had many lessons. We have seen women who should have been very plump who had half of their chest wall cut off, who lost most of the functions of the affected upper limbs, who lost their delicate bodies, and who were even more severely psychologically devastated; and a seven-year-old child who suffered from systemic failure due to excessive chemotherapy, with skin ulceration, subcutaneous petechial hemorrhage, and mucosal erosion and bleeding in the mouth and anus. A living life was lost in the treatment of doctors. We cannot continue this kind of treatment without caring about people, we have to follow the laws of science and respect people’s will. Because of the special biological characteristics of malignant tumors, whether early, middle or late stage patients, and whether the treatment chosen is local excision, extended excision, radical excision, or systemic chemotherapy or local radiotherapy, the requirements of systemic immune function, postoperative function protection and quality of life should be taken into consideration. This requires us not only to treat the disease, but more importantly to save the life. We believe that in the process of treating malignant tumors, in order to make malignant tumor patients have a good effect, we should pay attention to both the treatment of the body and the care of the mind at the same time. An experienced oncologist should establish the concept of psychological regulation of tumor patients from the first time he comes into contact with them. He should use good medical ethics and noble and refined technology to make malignant tumor patients feel relatable, reliable, respectable and trustworthy in many aspects, such as instrument, speech and medical behavior. Before treatment, we should make comprehensive analysis according to patient’s medical history, tumor size, scope, location and metastasis, establish clinical grading and staging diagnosis, and then formulate comprehensive treatment plan and prognosis evaluation according to patient’s own condition and immune function. In the process of applying various therapeutic methods and treatment plans, we never forget to treat patients with whole body and mind. Psychotherapy is effectively applied to regulate the patient’s emotions and increase his confidence and courage to overcome the disease; nutrition is reasonably increased to improve physical strength and immunity, so that he can tolerate and actively cooperate with the treatment. Patients’ cheerful optimism and firm confidence have a positive effect on helping patients to overcome the disease or prolong their lives with tumors. On the contrary, bad emotions can induce tumors or promote the rapid development of malignant tumors. According to Chinese medicine, the occurrence of all cancers is a manifestation of the imbalance of yin and yang in the human body. Therefore, Chinese medicine advocates that “we should pay attention to the location of yin and yang and regulate it, in order to calm the period”. In Chinese medicine, the first step is to restore and strengthen one’s own functions and mobilize the body’s internal ability to resist diseases. This is called “helping the righteous”. Some of the herbs can improve the immune function of the body and regulate the T-lymphocyte system, which can effectively inhibit cancer. Moderate activities such as walking, playing tai chi and practicing qigong can enhance the body’s “positive energy” and improve its ability to resist “evil energy”. After long-term clinical practice, we found that some Chinese herbal medicines have the effect of both treating cancer and improving physical strength and immune function, such as ginseng, astragalus, ganoderma lucidum, lady’s mantle, summer grass, comfrey, aristolochia, hemipterocarpus, asparagus, cordyceps and smallpox powder. In the treatment process of malignant tumors, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have different degrees of destructive effects on the normal cells of the body while reducing tumor cells, resulting in low resistance, leukopenia, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, liver and kidney function damage, etc. Due to these serious toxic reactions, treatment has to be interrupted and stopped, thus affecting the efficacy; clinical proof is supplemented with Chinese medicine treatment, applying some It is clinically proven that supplementing with Chinese medicine treatment, applying some drugs with the effect of nourishing liver and kidney and strengthening spleen and qi, can regulate the general condition to slow down the toxic side effects produced by surgery and radiotherapy, which is undoubtedly very necessary to consolidate and strengthen the treatment effect of tumor and prolong the life of patients. Since the holistic concept of TCM theory is in line with the modern medical model and its philosophical ideas support the development of holistic medicine with scientific basis, it has a more important position in the long-term accompanying treatment of cancer. Chinese medicine is increasingly playing a great role in the treatment of tumors because of its mild toxic side effects, its bi-directional regulating effect of supporting the righteous and driving away the evil, its ability to prevent recurrence and metastasis, and its smooth and lasting efficacy. People’s incorrect and incomplete understanding of cancer and the fear of “talking about cancer” are more harmful to cancer patients than the damage of cancer itself to the body. In fact, tumor is a kind of renewal reaction in the aging process of the organism, it is also a tissue cell on the human body, which has its own desire to survive. We should try to recognize it, teach it and control it, so as not to let it appear in us too early. The growth of tumor in a person after 70 or 80 years old is a physiological phenomenon and will not cause serious harm to the body. During autopsies in western countries, it was found that some people who did not have tumor symptoms before they were born, about 48% of them had more than one malignant tumor in their bodies, and some of them grew very big. The occurrence of tumor is a normal process in biological evolution, and tumor may arise in every human body, and tumor will grow and apoptosis. The growth of tumor is also slow and will not kill a person in a few days or months, it is a chronic consumption process. It is well known that coronary heart disease and stroke will kill you suddenly, but tumor will not. However, some tumor patients die of fear, sadness, depression, collapse of immune system and endocrine disorder. I have witnessed some people who were in good health and expected to survive for a long time, but they died in a short time because of fear and sadness because they knew they had cancer. This is because he does not have an objective understanding of tumor and has great psychological fear due to his ignorance of tumor. The patient who could have lived for several more years ended up with reduced survival period. Our experience is to tell the patient step by step that long-term concealment is not the best policy. First, let him be with the long-term surviving cancer patients who are mentally normal and gradually communicate with them, and finally slowly teach him some knowledge about tumor so that he can gradually understand tumor and happily cooperate with the treatment. The new medical model is transforming from “disease-centered” to “people-centered”, and more and more attention is paid to the evaluation of the quality of life of tumor patients, and more attention is paid to the treatment including physical health, psychological health and social adaptability. The evaluation of treatment effect must include psychosocial content. This requires that the treatment of malignant tumor should not only control the tumor locally, but also enable the patients to recover their life and working ability with good physical and mental status, so that the degradation of the quality of life caused by the treatment, such as physical damage, mental impact, psychological disorder and functional decline, can be controlled at the lowest level. Therefore, the best treatment effect can be achieved by formulating a reasonable treatment plan for patients and carrying out long-term concomitant treatment.