It is advisable to keep the prescription for treating cancer The occurrence of cancer is a multi-factorial, multi-stage, complex and gradual process, and this process usually takes years, decades or even decades to accumulate. Therefore, cancer is a chronic disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) gives a new definition of cancer as “cancer is a chronic disease that can be controlled.” In treating chronic diseases, one should not be in a hurry, especially in treating such diseases as cancer. In clinical practice, it is found that patients who keep their prescriptions for a longer period of time are also patients with better efficacy. Patients who change their prescriptions frequently are also those who have recurring illnesses. There is a case of liver cancer patient Xu, whose cancer age has just reached 8 years, and he was seen on February 25, 2013, as a teacher of a provincial key high school. Ultrasound report suggested: substantial intrahepatic occupying lesion (tumor size about 5.6×4.8cm^2) (possible hepatocellular carcinoma). On January 24, 2008, he underwent a partial resection of the right lobe of the liver plus a chemotherapy pump with a right vein cannula in the gastric omentum under general anesthesia. Before and after the surgery and intervention, he did not interrupt his treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (more prescriptions), proprietary Chinese medicine (compound zebrano capsules, Xiaojin Wan, Huayu Sheng tablets, etc.) and western medicine Boludin (entecavir tablets). His symptoms include: a pale complexion, slight weakness, food intake, occasional abdominal distention and fullness, restless sleep at night, pale yellow urine, and loose and irregular stools. The tongue is dark, with thin and greasy coating, and the pulse is thin, smooth and slightly stringent. The tumor size is 3.6×2.7cm^2. Consider liver depression, spleen deficiency and yin deficiency with stasis. The treatment was given to strengthen the spleen, harmonize the stomach and regulate Qi, nourish Yin, resolve phlegm, regulate Qi and activate Blood. The formula is as follows: Ganoderma lucidum 9g, Turtle A 15g, Oyster 15g, Shen Qu 9g, Zhe Bei 9g, Radix et Rhizoma Polygonati 30g, Atractylodes Macrocephala 15g, Poria 15g, Semen Coicis 30g, Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae 9g, August Zha 30g, Fleabane 9g, Acanthopanax Bark 9g, Rose Hip 9g, Hawthorn 9g, Fried Grain Bud 9g, Fried Wheat Bud 9g, Jujube Seed 15g, Shou Wu 15g, Xia Ku Cao 30g, Roasted Licorice 6g. 10 doses, 1 dose daily with water decoction. It was instructed to stop the use of other traditional Chinese medicine and proprietary Chinese medicine, and Boludin was persistently taken. After taking 10 doses, the patient’s spirit, appetite and sleep improved, and the effect was not more prescription. The tumor always did not increase or slightly decreased compared with the last time. In the last six months, the original tumor basically disappeared and calcification foci were seen. The patient has kept the same prescription for 3 years without any addition or subtraction, only stopping the medicine for a few days when he occasionally had a cold or other discomfort, and temporarily prescribing another medicine for treatment, and following up with the previous medicine. At first, the patient took one dose a day, but a year later, he took one dose on two days, and so far he has kept the prescription for more than 700 doses. The first stage is the tumor deceleration stage, about 3 to 6 months, during which the growth rate of tumor slows down significantly after treatment. The 2nd stage is the plateau stage, which is about 6 months to 1 year. During this period, the tumor hardly increases or decreases in size and is in a relatively stable period. Stage 3 is the recovery period, which is about 2 to 3 years. During this period, most of the patient’s discomfort disappears, the tumor shrinks and calcifies or fibroses or disappears, or the patient may live with the tumor all the time. During these 3 periods of cancer treatment, when new additional disease evidence (symptoms) appear, timely follow-up treatment will be given, and after the symptoms are gone, the patient will go back to the way of treating the root cause (tumor). Wu Jutong of Qing Dynasty said in “Treating External Infections like a General, Treating Internal Injuries like a Phase”. The onset of external infection is rapid, rapid change, rapid transmission, like a general in battle, the opportunity to cut off its way in, so as not to make internal offense. Internal injury disease, either from external sensation into the inside, or by the seven emotions, or by diet and fatigue, but since it has entered the inside, not to finish its work in a single battle, such as the good phase of governance, divided into strands, extracting the cocoon, slowly eliminating the gradual attack, and at the same time to encourage the righteousness, before the gradual and successful, such as Meng Long for it, rarely not to ruin the matter. Tumor is an internal injury disease, with persistence, treatment must reflect the stability, prescription of drugs to have continuity. The treatment must be based on the root of the disease, which is the essence. If the essence remains unchanged, the prescription cannot be changed, and if it is changed, it will be invalid. That is to say, after the diagnosis is clear, one side of a disease, the evidence remains the same, the prescription remains the same. There is another case of liver cancer patient Xiong, male, 62 years old, diagnosed as primary liver cancer, identified by Chinese medicine as liver qi stagnation, given prolonged yao pill plus reduction, treatment for more than 20 days, not only the symptoms have improved, but also some tumor shrinkage. The patient was anxious for success and went abroad to seek medical help, but in less than two months, he died of dropsy (liver cancer with a large amount of ascites) after an urgent visit to the doctor. Chinese medicine advocates that for chronic diseases such as cancer, not only should the prescriptions be effective but also the medicine should be effective. Cheng Zhongling warned his patients in “One Hundred Errors in Medicine” that “the patient is wrong and impatient, but the medicine must be eaten when the disease has returned to the machine, and the medicine is suitable for the disease since it is removed, so it is not necessary to change the doctor at night.” Therefore, it is difficult to prescribe and even more difficult to keep the prescription for tumor treatment. The body of cancer patients is in a state of weak equilibrium, in a sense, the patient’s body has been accustomed to or tolerated this diseased state, so in general, only mild methods can be used to treat the disease, small breakage and small establishment is still possible, but never big breakage and big establishment. Keeping the prescription, in fact, is to let the body self-regulation, slowly adapt to the new changes, in the process of the party unchanged with the accumulation of quantity, will eventually occur qualitative changes, that is, the body to establish a solid state of equilibrium, that is, the state of Yin and Yang secret. There are two conditions that must be fulfilled in order to keep the prescription: one is that the doctor is accurate in identifying the evidence, confident in treating the disease, clearly telling the patient his treatment philosophy and ideas, and being able to convince the patient; the other is that the patient has a high degree of trust in the doctor and is able to cooperate well, and really feels the benefits of the treatment in the process of taking the medicine, so as to strengthen the patient’s determination to treat.