Traditional Chinese Medicine’s understanding of breast cancer Breast cancer has a variety of Chinese medicine titles: breast rock, stone carbuncle, breast nucleus, jealousy of the breast, breast cancer, milk rock, stone milk, flower milk, breast pain firmness, Gou抄奶, pomegranate turn flower, etc. The cause of breast cancer is interpreted as follows: the liver is out of circulation, the qi and blood are stagnant. Interpretation of the causes of breast cancer: Liver failure, stagnation of qi and blood. Loss of healthy transportation of the spleen and internalization of phlegm. Disorder of the flushing period, poor circulation of qi and blood, insufficient endowment, deficiency of qi and blood. External aggression, six obscene assaults. Chinese medicine and Western medicine are completely different medical systems, Western medicine focuses on structure, Chinese medicine focuses on function. Western medicine constantly research and development has made rapid progress. On the other hand, the development of Chinese medicine is slower due to the influence of inheritance and individualization, identification and treatment, which is not easy to summarize and develop. Each TCM doctor has different methods and efficacy in treating breast cancer due to different inheritance. On the other hand, Western medicine has a special NCCN guideline for breast cancer, and all Western doctors adopt uniform treatment standards. The current level of treatment in TCM cannot cure or control the development of breast cancer, and simply adopting a TCM treatment method can be life-threatening. If some patients are worried about surgery and chemotherapy and have to undergo TCM treatment, they should also undergo surgery + integrated treatment, with TCM playing the role of adjuvant treatment. Reasonable TCM evidence-based treatment for high-risk and recurrent breast cancer, postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy for breast cancer has a good effect on reducing side effects, improving the quality of life of advanced breast cancer, and prolonging the survival period of advanced breast cancer. Misconceptions of Chinese medicine in treating breast cancer Misconceptions 1: Believing in partial prescriptions “partial prescriptions” are generally effective in treating a certain type of a specific disease, and no partial prescriptions have been found to be able to cure breast cancer. Tumor is a serious and complex disease, which can not be solved by simple prescriptions or secret recipes, but requires comprehensive means of surgery + integrated treatment. Myth 2: Drinking traditional Chinese medicine at the early stage of the disease When you first find a breast lump, the first thing you should do is to go to a regular hospital for examination, and check the nature of the lump with the means of western medicine, ultrasound, mammogram, MRI, or even puncture. Listen to your doctor’s advice. Myth 3: The most expensive Chinese medicine or superstitious flavor of Chinese medicine Some patients keep reminding the doctor to prescribe good medicine, the evaluation of the efficacy of the standard is the drug is expensive or not. There is no connection between whether or not the medicine is effective and whether or not it is expensive. The basic principle of Chinese medicine is dialectic, lost dialectic, the pursuit of a single or expensive is wrong. Myth 3: taking medicine is better than not eating Ancestors have a saying “medicine is three times poisonous”, it is recommended to listen to the surgeon or regular hospital Chinese medicine experts, not long-term use of traditional Chinese medicine or long-term use of traditional Chinese medicine regardless of the time, or even drink traditional Chinese medicine for a lifetime. When to start Chinese medicine treatment Most of the Chinese medicine treatment is useful in the post-surgical conditioning, in the different stages of Western medicine treatment, different Chinese medicine programs should be used, Chinese and Western medicine synergistic action, Western medicine as the main, Chinese to supplement. Western medicine surgery, Chinese medicine conditioning. During chemotherapy] Chinese medicine is used to support the body’s immunity and reduce side effects. During radiotherapy] Chinese medicine nourishes Yin and promotes the production of body fluid, clears heat, moistens the lungs and resolves phlegm, reduces the side effects of radiotherapy, and regulates the diet. During endocrine therapy] TCM can use methods to improve the side effects of long-term medication by clearing the liver and lowering lipids, activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, clearing heat and moistening dryness, and tonifying the kidney and filling in essence. Refractory breast cancers such as triple-negative breast cancer or inflammatory breast cancer] For some patients who are in despair after completing surgery and chemotherapy, with individualized clinical additions and subtractions, psychological and physical benefits can also be received. Evaluation of the efficacy of Chinese medicine in treating breast cancer The method of judging whether Chinese medicine treatment is effective or not is the examination of western medicine, whose objectivity and precision can make up for the subjectivity of Chinese medicine. Breast ultrasound, molybdenum target, CT, MRI can provide accurate basis to indicate the change of the size of the lump. Blood tumor marker tests and blood biochemistry tests can provide information on whether the treatment is really effective. At the same time, the patients themselves feel better in terms of mental and physical discomfort, all of which are proof that the herbal tonics have been effective.