Through long-term clinical observation and analysis of literature in recent decades, we proposed a basic theoretical framework of tumor in Chinese medicine, with “positive qi” as the general outline and “deficiency, phlegm, stasis and toxicity” as the core. (1) Definition of tumor: A mass formed in the body due to the deficiency of positive qi, resulting in the agglomeration of phlegm, blood stasis, tumor toxicity and other evil qi. In the process of tumor formation, tumor toxin plays a key role, and tumor toxin has the function of attracting phlegm and blood stasis and other pathological products to gather. In benign tumors, the tumor toxin is mild, and the phlegm and stasis gathered are cleared by the positive energy, resulting in long-term tumor stability. In malignant tumors, the tumor toxicity is heavier, and the ability of toxicity to gather phlegm and stasis exceeds the ability of the positive energy to remove it, and the tumor keeps growing. (2) Judgment of positive and evil The development or receding of tumor is the final result of the fight between positive and evil. In traditional medicine, it is expressed as the strength and weakness of qi, blood, yin and yang, and the function of five organs; in modern medicine, general status score, immune function index and functional status of each system can be used as evaluation parameters. In traditional medicine, the main evaluation indicators are phlegm, stasis and toxicity; in modern medicine, the evaluation indicators include tumor size, scope, pathological grading, tumor development speed and abnormal degree of tumor markers. (3) Tumor pathogenesis 1. Insufficient positive qi, failure of qi-transformation, difficulty in effectively eliminating metabolites and foreign toxins in the body, resulting in toxicity in the body. 2. Insufficient positive qi and unhealthy transportation and transformation, the intake of diet cannot be effectively transformed into nutrients, which in turn leads to the production of phlegm (accumulation and turbidity). 3, Insufficient positive qi, the function of blood circulation and blood intake decreases, leading to internal stasis of blood and poisonous injury to the veins and ligaments, also resulting in stasis of blood. 4.Phlegm and stasis block the ligaments, blocking the meridians and qi, dysregulating the liaison between the internal organs and decreasing the overall function, which is manifested as deficiency of positive qi; phlegm and stasis block the ligaments, blocking the qi-transformation (metabolism) pathway and decreasing the efficiency of detoxification, resulting in toxin accumulation. 5. Tumor toxicity is an independent pathogenic factor, and its concept is different from the traditional meaning of “the extreme of evil becomes toxicity”. Tumor growth is centered on tumor toxin, which has the function of attracting phlegm and stasis to gather. 6. The method of fighting poison with poison (radiotherapy, chemotherapy including targeted therapy) has the concern of aggravating tumor toxicity while treating tumor. From traditional Chinese medical theory to modern scientific theory, the establishment of Chinese medical oncology still needs to go a long way. Firstly, the scientific definitions of deficiency, phlegm, stasis and toxicity should be clarified and their connotations and extensions should be determined. Secondly, there should be quantitative methods to describe the extent of the above four factors. Third, on the basis of clear concepts and quantitative methods, we should systematically summarize ancient and modern literature and find relevant evidence to revise or supplement the existing theoretical system. Fourth, we should describe the modern treatment methods in terms of deficiency, phlegm, stasis and toxicity (which of the pathological mechanisms of deficiency, phlegm, stasis and toxicity is targeted?) Fourth, modern treatment methods should be described in terms of their efficacy (which of the pathological mechanisms of deficiency, phlegm, stasis, and toxicity is regulated) and their effectiveness (which of the factors of deficiency, phlegm, stasis, and toxicity is regulated). The new theoretical system of TCM oncology science should not only be used to guide the practice of TCM, but also be used to suggest the future development of modern medicine, so that the theory will have vitality. (1) Gu support righteousness, the key to success or failure 1. Modern invasive therapies (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, radiofrequency, targeting) can damage the righteousness, and the continuous development of tumor can also damage the righteousness, so the degree of damage of both should be weighed. For example, the patient’s “one breath of qi” = qi consumption in one month of surgery = qi consumption in 2 cycles of chemotherapy = qi consumption in 30 days of radiotherapy = qi consumption in 1 year of tumor development. The question is how to quantify the loss of qi to patients by invasive treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. 2. Kidney energy comes from congenital heredity, and energy determines the survival time of a person. Insufficient function of spleen and stomach in the later life, insufficient righteousness, the physiological functions of human body cannot be coordinated, which will aggravate the excessive consumption of vital energy on the one hand, and accelerate the consumption of vital energy on the other hand due to frequent invasion of diseases. Therefore, to support the righteousness and consolidate the essence, to attach importance to the function of spleen and stomach, to protect the qi of kidney element, to promote normal qi-chemistry, normal qi-mechanism and normal consolidation, so as to cut off the source of phlegm and stasis, is one of the ways to stop the growth of tumor. 3. In advanced cancer, emphasis is placed on supporting the righteousness, and on the basis of Gu Fu Zheng Qi, the application of methods to resolve phlegm and disperse knots, activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis, and detoxify and attack toxins should be emphasized. (2) Tumor treatment, physical priority Modern tumor chemotherapy, radiation therapy and the newly developed targeted therapy not only cause greater toxic side effects while killing tumors, but also lead to drug and radiation resistance of tumor cells, which on the one hand is the direct toxicity of drugs to the organism, on the other hand, as the toxicity (malignancy) of tumor cells increases, the toxicity to human body becomes more serious. Therefore, the choice of anti-tumor treatment should be based on physical methods such as surgery, radiofrequency and freezing, and less or postponed use of radiotherapy, chemotherapy or targeted therapy that may aggravate the toxicity of tumor (including the use of poison against poison Chinese medicine). （Tumor is a typical physical and mental disease. Patients not only suffer from various symptoms brought by the disease physically, but also carry a heavy burden psychologically, that is to say, the factors that deplete patients’ positive energy come from both the tumor itself and the psychological burden. In clinical practice, if we only pay attention to the damage of tumor factors and treatment factors (toxic side effects) on patients’ positive energy without paying attention to the great depletion of patients’ positive energy by psychological factors, then the efficacy of anti-tumor treatment aiming at improving the quality and prolonging the survival time will be greatly reduced. Therefore, while reasonably applying the integrated treatment methods of Chinese and Western medicine, we must pay attention to the various psychological activities of patients and pay attention to alleviating the mental and emotional burden of patients. Some doctors tell patients’ survival time realistically based on research results, which may lead to catastrophic consequences. This is because when patients learn their approximate survival time, they get an extremely strong psychological implication that they will be terrified because they calculate their survival time every day, leading to a great decrease in the quality of life and a high probability of ending their lives within the time predicted by their doctors. Therefore, when patients ask about survival time, they should not answer positively and should be told that any miracle can happen. Indeed, we have many examples of advanced stage patients surviving for a long time, which is the best medicine to encourage patients to live on tenaciously. Oncology patients are very fragile psychologically and cannot withstand the stimulation of malignant language. Therefore, oncology doctors must have good service attitude, good service attitude itself is part of the treatment, if there is no good attitude, it is undoubtedly adding insult to injury to give bad stimulation again when the patient has a heavy psychological burden. If patients have psychological and emotional problems, the main manifestation is poor sleep. Clinical observation shows that more than 80% of cancer patients have poor sleep, and once postoperative patients have sleep disorder of unknown reasons, it often indicates tumor recurrence or metastasis. Therefore, sleep is of great importance to tumor patients. In addition to language enlightenment, appropriate application of Chinese herbal medicines for liver relaxation, heart nourishment and heart clearing can promote the improvement of overall anti-tumor therapeutic effect. In addition, in the regulation of physiological functions, it is important to seize the source of positive energy. The spleen and stomach are the source of qi and blood biochemistry. Damage to the function of spleen and stomach will directly lead to the reduction of the source of positive qi, and insufficient positive qi will result in insufficient power and reduced ability to resist diseases. In addition to the toxic substances produced by tumor development that affect the function of spleen and stomach, modern treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy directly affect the transport function of spleen and stomach, and heavy psychological burden will affect the transport of spleen and stomach. Therefore, Chinese medicine treatment methods such as spleen strengthening, spleen transportation, stomach harmonization, and internal organs are emphasized to protect the transportation function of the spleen and remove the stagnant substances in the stomach and intestines, so that patients can continuously transform water and grain diet into qi, blood and fluid, and then a good foundation can be laid for the next step of treatment. (4) Advanced tumor, resting and braking Late stage patients are relatively large in both tumor volume and tumor scope, while the positive energy is relatively weak. Under such circumstances, the application of conventional methods such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy cannot completely remove the tumor, and the rash application of extensive surgery and high-dose radiotherapy may consume the only remaining positive qi of the patient in a short period of time, leading to disastrous consequences. Therefore, for tumor patients, especially elderly patients, once tumor recurrence or metastasis is found, it is not advisable to take large-scale damaging treatment immediately. If the tumor development is relatively slow and the tumor does not produce symptoms or directly threaten life, invasive treatment can be temporarily dispensed with and traditional Chinese medicine should be the main treatment. If the tumor development trend is obvious, treatment should be directed at symptoms affecting the quality of life (pain, breath-holding, bleeding, etc.) or direct life-threatening lesions, and minimally invasive methods such as radiofrequency, argon helium knife, ultrasound focusing and certain less toxic oral targeted drugs should be chosen as much as possible, so that the exact anti-tumor effect can be exchanged for a smaller cost of damaged positive energy. For example, for advanced recurrent or metastatic lung adenocarcinoma, the targeted drug ERSA is routinely used for lung cancer at a dosage of 500 mg per day until tumor progression (the average time to develop drug resistance is usually about six months), but ERSA has more obvious side effects such as diarrhea and rash, which can affect the patient’s quality of life. Therefore, we try to intermittently use ERSA and combine it with traditional Chinese medicine for treatment: stop applying ERSA when the patient’s condition is stable (tumor shrinks significantly and tumor markers such as CEA change from abnormal to normal), apply traditional Chinese medicine alone for treatment, and add ERSA when the tumor tends to develop, so that traditional Chinese medicine combined with intermittent use of ERSA not only significantly reduces the patient’s side effects and medical costs, but also significantly extends the time for drug resistance to appear. In this way, the intermittent use of traditional Chinese medicine combined with ERSA will not only significantly reduce the side effects and medical costs of patients, but also significantly prolong the time of drug resistance, thus greatly improving the quality of life and survival time of patients. (5) Long-term conditioning, detoxification is the first thing. If a patient in the recovery period has no evidence to identify, it means that the positive energy is not deficient. Animal experiments have confirmed that the drugs commonly used to treat tumors to support positive energy, such as Astragalus, Radix Codonopsis, Fructus Lycii and Fructus Psoralea, have an obvious effect of promoting tumor growth in vitro. In addition, tumor cells have the characteristic of unlimited proliferation, while normal cells automatically stop proliferating when they recover to a certain degree. Therefore, in the case that the positive energy is not deficient, the long-term and large amount of application of corrective drugs is not beneficial to the organism that has a basic balance of yin and yang, but has the concern of promoting tumor growth. As tumor toxicity is the root cause of tumor recurrence and metastasis, therefore, after the modern treatment of tumor is finished, the patient’s positive qi has been completely restored, at this time, the focus of long-term maintenance treatment should be placed on detoxification, anti-toxicity and anti-toxicity, and at the same time, it should be appropriately supplemented with support for positive qi. (6) Diuretic and laxative treatment, so that there is a way out for the evil. Phlegm stasis and toxic obstruction is an important pathological mechanism of tumor, and the application of treatment for eliminating evil must open the way out for the evil. On the one hand, cancer patients are older, and on the other hand, they are often constipated due to the application of morphine analgesics. The constipated patient’s turbidity does not descend to the stomach and spleen, resulting in nausea, vomiting and dullness, which directly affects the biochemistry of qi and blood and replenishment of positive qi. In addition, the second stool does not pass, the evil has no way out will directly affect the treatment effect. Therefore, in the case of ascites, chest water, stool obstruction, often apply diuretic and laxative drugs such as Che Qian Cao, Poria, Fu Ling, Gui Zhi, Dong Gua Pi, Sheng Da Huang, Fire Ma Ren, whole Gua Pou and other diuretic and laxative products, and strive to support the righteousness and attack the evil, the evil has a place to go. （Tumor patients, especially female breast cancer patients, often have the symptoms of “upper flourishing and lower deficiency”, which manifest as paroxysmal dryness and heat, impatience, red face and ears, restless sleep at night, cold pain in the waist and knees, and edema in the lower extremities, etc. Chinese medicine identifies liver depression and fire, and kidney yin deficiency. The application of large doses of liver-regulating drugs can save the emergency for a while, but long-term application will aggravate the disease. Therefore, such cases should be nourishing the kidney and replenishing yin as the root, supplemented by drugs to regulate the liver and qi, in order to solve the problem at the root. Clinical treatment is often based on maitong, fried jujube seeds, poria, cinnamon, wu wei zi, and large doses of rehmannia (60-90 g) supplemented with prolotherapy. Brain metastasis of tumor often causes a stroke like condition. It is generally believed that the pathogenesis of stroke is liver fire with phlegm rushing up to the top. The TCM pathogenesis of internal wind caused by brain metastasis of tumor is different from the traditional view, and its main pathogenesis is liver wind, liver fire with phlegm, and evil toxin rushing to the top. Therefore, the treatment of internal wind caused by brain metastasis of tumor, in addition to the application of traditional methods such as consolidation, fire reduction and elimination of phlegm, it is also necessary to apply methods of attacking and detoxifying the toxin in order to achieve better curative effect. Clinically, the drugs such as calamus, yujin, cinnamon, descending incense, daidian shudi, wuweizi, tortoise board, centipede, whole worm, poria, hooked vine, wood turtle seed, lobelia, mulberry leaf, whole guajia, etc. are commonly used. (H) Insects search the ligaments, drugs attack evil Tumors are caused by Qi stagnation, phlegm coagulation and blood stasis, as pointed out in “Ling Shu? All diseases begin to life” points out: “blood clotting contains inside and does not disperse …… with and does not go and accumulation are into carry on.” Wang Qingren pointed out that “clots, must have the form of blood also. Blood by cold is condensed into lumps, blood by heat is tormented into lumps.” The clinical use of the products that move Qi and blood to resolve phlegm, such as Chuanxiong, Yujin, Jianghuang, Xiangxiang, Curcuma longa, Angelica, Guaguaguaguajou, Fishy grass, seaweed, Zhebei, Xiaquan Cao, stiletto, raw oyster. Tumor is a chronic disease, generally from the onset to the clear diagnosis of the disease may have 10-20 years. Therefore, malignant tumors are mostly caused by evil toxins deep in the lining, so it is difficult for general qi-activating drugs to be effective. The centipede, the whole worm, the earth element, the beehive, the leech, the mountain ace, the dragon, etc. are commonly used in clinical cases. Cancer toxicity is very toxic. After radiotherapy and multiple courses of chemotherapy, the surviving tumor cells of many advanced patients are so toxic that they are tolerant to almost all chemical drugs. If the patient turns to Chinese medicine at this time, if the positive energy is still full and the internal toxicity is strong, heavy doses must be used to break the evil potential. In addition, from the analysis of the side effects of modern Western medicine treatment, radiotherapy consumes qi and hurts yin, which is a hot poisonous evil; chemotherapy damages the spleen and kidney, which is a cold evil; targeted therapy causes diarrhea and rash, which is a cold poisonous evidence of Yang. Therefore, for patients who have undergone multiple courses of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the corresponding TCM treatment methods should be adopted according to the nature of toxicity. The clinical use of seaweed with Glycyrrhiza glabra is often used to increase the function of resolving phlegm, and the use of an overdose of 10-15 grams of wood turtle seeds to attack the toxin, and the use of large doses of longan, baiying, caohe che, and white flowered snake tongue herb to clear the heat toxin, and the use of large doses of epilobium to resolve the cold toxin. On the basis of effective attack on the toxin, drugs that strengthen the spleen and tonify the kidney should be used to prevent the toxin from hurting the vital energy too much.