In recent decades, with the deterioration of the environment and changes in people’s lifestyles, the incidence of malignant tumors has been rising year by year throughout the world, and this is also true in China. According to statistics, in the early 1950s, cancer deaths accounted for the 9th or 10th place among all causes of death in China, and in the 1970s, cancer deaths had jumped to the 3rd place among all causes of death in China. And in 1991, cancer deaths among residents of some large and medium-sized cities in China have occupied the 1st place of all causes of death [1]. Although the research on tumor treatment has been deepening in recent years, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, biotherapy have been improved, and various new drugs have been introduced, the treatment of tumors is still a difficult problem, and the cure rate and effective rate are still very low. Therefore, in the minds of the general public, there still exists the mentality of “being scared of talking about cancer”, believing that tumors are incurable, and this mentality often leads patients to go into the wrong zone when seeking medical treatment. In China, the Chinese medical profession has learned from the research method and research results of modern medicine, conducted in-depth research on the treatment of tumors by traditional Chinese medicine, broken through many difficulties, and developed many effective proprietary anticancer preparations. In recent years, people have gradually realized that Chinese medicine has an important role in the treatment of malignant tumors, and the treatment of malignant tumors with Chinese medicine has moved from an auxiliary means to a main means. However, because of the limitations of the general public’s understanding and the psychology of “talking about cancer”, people tend to enter into the misunderstanding when choosing traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of tumors, which affects the therapeutic effect. However, because of the limitations of the general public’s understanding and the psychology of “talking about cancer”, people often go into the wrong zone when choosing Chinese medicine to treat tumors, thus affecting the treatment effect. The author has been engaged in the treatment of malignant tumors with Chinese medicine for many years, and after research and summary, he found that people often have the following misunderstandings about the treatment of tumors with Chinese medicine. Han Jing, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Baotou Poverty Alleviation Hospital Misconception 1: Chinese medicine is only an auxiliary therapeutic measure The traditional treatment of modern medicine for tumors is still mainly based on surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and the research in recent years has made biological therapy become an important means of tumor treatment, but these treatments are targeted at the tumors and the tumor cells themselves, and less attention is paid to the overall system of the patients, so that this kind of treatment will cause many toxic side effects, such as post-surgery patients’ toxic side effects, and the effects on the overall system of the patients. Therefore, this kind of treatment will have many toxic side effects, such as the weakness of patients after surgery and the damage of various organ functions after radiotherapy. The role of Chinese medicine is to regulate the overall function of the organism and restore the normal physiological activities of each system, so as to mobilize the body’s own anti-cancer function. Therefore, Chinese medicine and western treatment means are complementary and mutually supplementary in the treatment of tumors, and the organic combination of both of them can achieve good therapeutic effects. The best treatment mode should be: to directly target the tumor with surgery and radiotherapy to destroy or kill the tumor cells; and to use TCM to reduce the toxic and side-effects of surgery and radiotherapy, and to improve the immunity of the tumor body, so as to exert the normal immunosurveillance function of the body against the tumor cells, thereby controlling the proliferation, recurrence and metastasis of the tumor, and to achieve good therapeutic effect. Therefore, in the treatment of tumors, Chinese medicine has the same important role as Western medicine, instead of being an auxiliary therapeutic measure. Myth 2: Chinese medicine has no toxic side effects Chinese medicines are mostly taken from plants and animals, not chemically synthesized, and some of them are commonly used ingredients, so in the minds of common people, Chinese medicines do not have any toxic side effects and can be used arbitrarily. However, in fact, in the process of using Chinese medicines, there are three toxic side effects that need to be emphasized: first, some Chinese medicines themselves are toxic, such as anti-cancer toadstools, spotted fibers, mushrooms, Chonglou, etc., the improper use of which can be life-threatening; and second, some Chinese medicines, long-term, large amounts of the use of the liver and kidneys will be impaired, but the toxic side effects of these Chinese medicines are often overlooked. Such as Guanzhong, neem, pollen, yellow herbs, half-summer and other drugs, improper use will cause drug-induced liver disease. And drugs such as Fangji, Houpu, Mutong and Lei Gongteng can lead to renal impairment. After surgery and radiotherapy, the liver and kidney functions of tumor patients have been damaged to a certain extent, and when using Chinese medicine, especially attention should be paid to the care of the liver and kidney functions, avoiding long-term and large amount of application of Chinese medicines with damage to the liver and kidney, so as not to endanger the patients and aggravate their conditions; thirdly, Chinese medicines emphasize on the identification of the evidence and the treatment of the patient, and prescribe medicines for the individual. If we do not choose Chinese medicine blindly according to the patient’s condition and the knowledge and understanding of western medicine on tumor disease, it will inevitably cause the medicines to be incorrectly applied, and even the wrong medicines will be used, such as using hot medicines for hot cases, using cold medicines for cold cases, using attacking medicines for deficiency cases, and using tonic medicines for solid cases, which not only can’t reach the therapeutic effect, but also aggravate the condition and delay the treatment. Myth 3: Simply using Chinese medicine can cure cancer Surgery and radiotherapy are still the most effective ways to eliminate tumor load in the treatment of malignant tumors nowadays, but due to their toxic side effects and complications, patients are often unable to complete the whole course of treatment. TCM, on the other hand, has few toxic side effects and uncomfortable symptoms in the treatment of tumors, and is therefore more acceptable to patients, which may subsequently lead to errors in the choice of treatment by certain patients and their families. For early, isolated, small and non-metastatic tumors, surgery is still the only means of cure; while small-cell lung cancer, leukemia, malignant lymphoma, etc. are tumors that are very sensitive to chemotherapy and may be cured by chemotherapy. At this time, if we give up the surgery and radiotherapy, and simply believe in the cure of tumors by traditional Chinese medicine, the condition will be delayed, and we will lose the best time for treatment. Therefore, it must be clear that the use of traditional Chinese medicine to treat tumors is suitable for patients with extensive metastasis, recurrence, or older, weaker middle and advanced cancer patients who have already lost the opportunity of surgery and radiotherapy. At this time, simple traditional Chinese medicine treatment not only improves the symptoms, improves the immunity, but also prolongs the survival period and improves the rate of survival with tumors. Myth 4: Prescription can fight cancer Under the current medical level, malignant tumors are still a kind of disease with very high death rate, therefore, in the mind of common people, there still exists the viewpoint of “talking about cancer”, and people think that they will definitely die once they get cancer. In order to survive, the choice of treatment often leads to blindness and partiality. This has caused many patients and their families to ask around for remedies to cure cancer, blindly follow some false advertisements, such as the belief that toadstools, spotted fibers and other poisonous animals can fight cancer, and give up the formal means of Chinese and Western medicine treatment, the result will not only delay the treatment, but also due to the lack of understanding of the toxic side effects of the remedies, which led to the aggravation of the condition, or even death. Myth 5: The so-called Chinese medicine against cancer is the use of traditional Chinese medicines with anticancer effects. In recent years, the research on anticancer traditional Chinese medicines has made great progress, such as many animal experiments have shown that certain heat-removing and detoxifying medicines, medicines for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and medicines for softening hardness and dispersing knots, etc., have very good effects on anticancer in and out of the body, which leads to the social point of view that the so-called traditional Chinese medicine against cancer is the use of traditional Chinese medicines with anticancer effects in treating cancer, and often neglects patients with tumors. Therefore, it leads to a view in the society that the so-called Chinese medicine against cancer is to use Chinese medicine with anticancer effect to treat cancer, and the differences of individual tumor patients and their conditions are often neglected. More importantly, these so-called anticancer Chinese medicines only have anticancer effects in animal experiments, and their application to human beings requires the support and research of more case samples. The application of anticancer traditional Chinese medicines that cannot be based on evidence-based treatment can also lead to certain toxic side effects, such as tumor patients mostly have evidence of qi and spleen deficiency, and large doses of heat and toxin removing medicines can aggravate qi and spleen deficiency, leading to decline in the functions of various organs of the body, weakening of yang qi, and the emergence of coldness and limb coldness, loose stools and fatigue, drowsiness, etc. In addition, tumor tissues mostly lack the normal vascular structure, which is easy to rupture and bleed, and large doses of blood-stasis activating medicines often lead to the emergence of coldness, coldness and loose stools, and weakness. In addition, tumor tissues usually lack normal vascular structure and are easy to rupture and bleed, so large doses of drugs for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis often have the disadvantage of causing or aggravating tumor bleeding, therefore, caution should be exercised in application. To sum up, the treatment of malignant tumors with Chinese medicine has been generally recognized by the medical circles at home and abroad. However, the use of Chinese medicine in the treatment of malignant tumors must avoid the above several misunderstandings, therefore, the following points should be recognized: firstly, it is necessary to make clear the roles and characteristics of Chinese medicine in the antitumor treatment, and it is possible to reduce the toxic and side-effects of surgery and radiotherapy, and it is also able to improve the quality of survival of the patients with tumors, and prolong the period of survival, therefore, the Chinese medicine is comparable with modern medicine in the treatment of tumors. Secondly, it should be recognized that TCM treatment of tumors still needs individualized evidence-based treatment, TCM has a complete theoretical system, and in tumor treatment, professional and experienced TCM doctors are needed to treat individuals; thirdly, the concept of TCM anti-tumor is different from that of modern medicine, which emphasizes on the function of the whole body instead of individual tumors as targeted by western medicine, so it is not possible to use western medicine to treat individual tumors. Thirdly, the concept of Chinese medicine against tumors is different from that of modern medicine, which emphasizes the function of the whole rather than the individual tumors targeted by Western medicine. In conclusion, as a Chinese medicine worker in today’s society, he should learn more about modern medicine’s understanding and knowledge of diseases, constantly improve his basic level of Chinese medicine, and learn the essence of modern medicine, and organically combine Chinese and Western medicines in his clinical practice in order to better serve his patients.