Chinese medicine has unique advantages in treating lung cancer

  The incidence of lung cancer has been on the rise worldwide in recent years, and this trend is particularly evident in China. According to statistics, approximately more than 600,000 people die from lung cancer each year in China. Every 10 to 15 years, the number of lung cancer patients doubles, and it is expected that by 2025, China will have 1 million lung cancer patients, making it the world’s number one lung cancer country.  Lung cancer includes small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, and the commonly used treatments are surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs. Surgery is the first choice for non-small cell lung cancer, and radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted agents can be considered when the chance of surgery is lost; small cell lung cancer usually adopts comprehensive treatment, combining with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.  For a long time, most lung cancer patients are already in advanced stage when diagnosed and cannot undergo surgery. Moreover, traditional chemotherapy can neither achieve the ideal efficacy nor some adverse effects can easily make patients lose confidence in treatment, which leads to the low overall survival rate of lung cancer patients. Despite the new drugs to prolong life, the quality of life of lung cancer patients is generally low for a long time, and they suffer from both physical and psychological torture. Therefore, we emphasize that the goal of treatment is to relieve patients’ maximum pain and improve their quality of life.  In traditional Chinese medicine, lung cancer belongs to the category of “lung accumulation”, “Xiben” and “accumulation”. It is mainly due to the dysfunction of the internal organs caused by factors such as the exposure to six evil toxins, dietary damage, emotional and emotional depression, and old diseases, resulting in pathological changes such as qi stagnation, blood stasis, dampness, phlegm coagulation, and heat toxins, which accumulate in the lungs and become cancer.  Taking into account the pathological changes of lung cancer, we propose “Qi, blood and fluid derangement” and “dysfunction of internal organs”, and firstly propose the treatment of lung cancer from the perspective of “toxicity”. At present, the spectrum of Chinese medicine against cancer is becoming clearer and clearer, and the cancer growth and metastasis pathways are very different, so different Chinese medicines need to be applied to induce the meridians to reach the disease, so as to achieve the therapeutic effects of softening and dispersing the knots, supporting the righteousness and eliminating the evil, and supporting the toxicity and detoxification. Lung cancer has different subtypes, as well as differences in age, nutritional status and various comorbidities, so treatment should be fully individualized. In addition to the concept of “combining Chinese and Western medicine” and “combining evidence, disease and body identification”, we also creatively propose “identification of disease location and pathology” to achieve multi-angle and multi-faceted anti-cancer treatment, thus We also propose the “identification of disease location and pathology” to achieve multi-faceted and multi-directional anti-cancer treatment, thus significantly improving the efficacy.  Guarding the spleen and kidney: Due to the dysfunction of the internal organs, the lung and spleen can’t distribute fluid due to spleen deficiency, and the kidney can’t be transformed into phlegm due to water and dampness. Tumor patients often experience surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc., which damage the spleen and stomach. At the same time, some drugs taken and emotional factors such as worry and fear about the disease can affect the digestive function of the spleen and stomach, resulting in nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and other discomforts.  Lung Qi deficiency can hurt the kidneys over time, and the kidneys do not receive Qi, resulting in persistent asthma, so clinically we use “nourishing Yin and benefiting Qi” and “treating the lungs, spleen and kidneys together”, and have developed the agreement formula Liu Wei Di Huang Paste to benefit Qi and generate fluid, and the formula for nourishing the kidneys to receive Qi and fix asthma, often using princely ginseng The formula is often used to tonify the lungs, spleen and kidneys, cultivate the earth to produce gold, and support the root. The formation of phlegm and stagnant phlegm can easily deplete qi and injure blood, which will aggravate the deficiency of qi and make it easier for external evil to invade and induce complications.  Therefore, we advocate “support the righteousness”, “benefit the Wei Qi, replenish the Yuan Qi and nourish the Blood Qi”, and create our own effective remedies to replenish the lung and strengthen the Qi, often using princeton ginseng and American ginseng, etc. Sufficient righteousness can resist the attack of pathogens and neutralize the toxins, stabilize the immune function and eliminate the auto-antigens. It can also stabilize the internal and external environment of the body, regulate yin and yang, constantly renew and repair itself to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment and maintain the balance of yin and yang of the body.  On the other hand, tumor tissues contain oxygen-depleted cells, resulting in reduced sensitivity of tumor to radiotherapy, so the blood-stasis-activating drugs can improve microcirculation and increase blood flow. The blood-stasis activating drugs can improve microcirculation and increase blood flow, and thus have certain therapeutic effect in radiotherapy sensitization.  Therefore, in clinical practice, we specialize in using insects, such as whole scorpion, dilong, centipede, etc., to “search and remove the evil in the complex” and loosen the root of the disease, so as to achieve “no clotting of blood, and qi can be promoted”. The purpose is to “remove the evil from the ligaments” and to loosen the root of the disease, so as to achieve “no clotting of blood, qi can be declared and passed”, such as whole scorpion, centipede, leech and other worm medicine, so that the evil can be removed from the ligaments and restored the function of the lung to promote and descend, and achieved significant therapeutic effect and improved clinical efficacy. However, the taste and dosage of heat-clearing and detoxifying and blood-activating drugs are strictly controlled to avoid bitter-cold defeating the stomach and warm-dry injuring the lung.  The occurrence of lung cancer is also a kind of physical change. Different physical types determine the susceptibility of lung cancer, and determine the type of lung cancer, and even determine the transmission and regression of lung cancer.  Since the constitution is adjustable, we should also focus on improving the patient’s biased constitution to enhance the resistance to disease. Experimental studies have confirmed that taking cream formula can help prevent and treat lung cancer metastasis, focusing on correcting the imbalance of the body and establishing a new dynamic balance, aiming at “adjusting and leveling”, and giving full play to the advantages of Chinese medicine in treating tumors by combining multiple methods and even treatments with the complexity of the tumor disease mechanism and the compatibility of treatment rules. For example, taking creams containing Astragalus and Radix Codonopsis can treat Qi deficiency; taking creams containing Angelica and Agaricus can treat Blood deficiency; taking creams containing Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum, Radix Paeoniae Alba and Cordyceps can nourish the liver and kidney, etc. (The author is Professor Zhang Wei, a renowned expert from the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)