1.Cure cancer is to kill cancer cells The human body, originally a seamlessly functioning “biological machine”, the emergence of cancer cells has changed this situation. The task of cancer cells is to destroy and bring down the human body. 2. The basic unit of cancer lesion is cancer cell. Under normal circumstances, after aging and death of human cells, new cells will replace them to maintain the function of the body, which is the proliferation of cells. The proliferation of normal cells is limited, while the proliferation of cancer cells is unlimited, which causes the nutrients in the patient’s body to be consumed a lot. Cancer cells can also metastasize, which is the reason why cancer cells can take over the whole body. The cancer cells that metastasize and multiply in all parts of the body can cause wasting, weakness, anemia, loss of appetite, fever and impairment of organ functions, and malignant tumors can also destroy the structure and functions of tissues and organs, causing necrosis, bleeding and co-infection, and patients may eventually die due to organ failure. Therefore, as far as western modern medicine is concerned, the goal of treating cancer is to control and kill cancer cells. 3. What treatment is considered successful. The goal of cancer treatment is to target not only the primary cancer but also the cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body. Surgery or radiotherapy are aimed at cancer cells in specific areas of the body; systemic chemotherapy is aimed at cancer cells that have metastasized. Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are usually combined, which is the so-called “comprehensive treatment” of modern medicine. 4.What kind of treatment is successful treatment. The most successful treatment is cure. The definition of cure is “complete remission”, that is, all symptoms of cancer disappear. These “cured” patients may have complete elimination of cancer symptoms and no recurrence within 5 or 10 years, or one or more tumors may be reduced by more than half, and this response can relieve symptoms and prolong life. Of course, it is possible for the tumor to grow again. The least successful treatment is “no response,” meaning that the symptoms do not resolve, the tumor does not go into remission, and the tumor does not decrease in size. This is the last thing that doctors want to see. The main reason may be that the local treatment is incomplete and unsuccessful, or the cancer cells may have metastasized again, or the lowered immune function of the body may create favorable conditions for tumor recurrence and metastasis. 5. Pros and cons of various treatment methods. Surgery is the first method to cure tumor. For some tumors without metastasis, surgery alone can sometimes cure them. However, many patients cannot prevent tumor recurrence and distant metastasis by surgery alone. For radical treatment, there is a clear trend that the organismal and mental effects on the patient should be considered and the patient’s organs should be preserved as much as possible. For example, many oncology centers have been doing less and less radical mastectomy, and there are many doctors who ensure the radical treatment of breast cancer while reconstructing the breast to preserve a good appearance; disfiguring head and neck surgery is gradually replaced by minor surgery plus radiation. Osteosarcoma is also rarely treated with amputation but with prosthetic bone implants to preserve function. When surgery is combined with radiation or chemotherapy, better results can be achieved for many tumors. The current trend is toward smaller and smaller surgeries, and to preserve as much organ function as possible. The disadvantages of chemotherapy are obvious: it does not have a strong selective inhibitory effect on tumor cells, and the systemic toxicity of the drug is high. Radiation therapy, especially the precise localization therapy with the help of microcomputer, can cure many kinds of tumors, but it still has some limitations, and with other treatment methods, the efficacy can be improved considerably. Traditional Chinese medicine has unique strengths in mobilizing the body’s resistance to disease and reducing the side effects of other treatments, but the local control of tumors is generally poor. For many years, clinical medicine has been emphasizing the individualization of patients, and the meaning of “diagnosis and treatment” in Chinese medicine and “individual treatment” in Western medicine are similar. 6.For tumor, should we attack or defend. In summary, we can summarize the treatment process of tumor as follows: the first stage is to remove the tumor as much as possible; the second stage is to recover the patient’s physical strength in all aspects, especially focusing on rebuilding the patient’s immune and bone marrow functions; the third stage is to carry out intensive treatment again depending on the situation. In the third stage, intensive treatment is carried out as appropriate. After treatment, it is also necessary to continuously improve the immune status of the patient. While treating the tumor (i.e. “eliminating the evil”), it is also important to protect the patient’s body, especially the immune and bone marrow functions, liver and kidney functions (i.e. “supporting the right”). Most of the existing treatments, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and biologic therapy, have certain side effects that can place a considerable burden on the patient’s organism. Therefore, it is important for the physician to fully evaluate the potential gains and losses of a particular treatment for the patient. Obviously, some elderly or frail patients, as well as patients with major liver organ dysfunction, can hardly tolerate the above treatments, especially surgery, extensive radiation and high-dose chemotherapy, and even some biologic treatments that can cause fever. In the case of tumors, the doctor should consider which is the main threat and which problem needs to be solved first, whether to “attack” or “defend”. In other words, to weigh the pros and cons, the gains and losses for the patient.