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Corrective treatment: Immunotherapy method guided by traditional Chinese medicine theory
Release time:
2015-09-24
Corrective treatment: Immunotherapy method guided by traditional Chinese medicine theory
The "2012 China Cancer Registry Annual Report" pointed out: "A person is diagnosed with cancer every 6 minutes nationwide, with 8,550 new cancer patients every day, and one in every seven to eight people dies of cancer." "The national cancer incidence situation is severe, with both incidence and mortality rates showing a continuous upward trend, with approximately 3.5 million new cancer cases and about 2.5 million cancer deaths each year." On February 3, 2015, the World Health Organization released the "Global Cancer Report 2014," which stated: "The world is facing a cancer outbreak, with China having the highest incidence rate." Similarly, in February, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "12th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Risk Prevention and Control of Chemicals," which clearly stated that due to pollution from toxic chemicals, some regions have experienced serious health and social issues such as 'cancer villages.' This is considered the first official acknowledgment of the existence of the 'cancer village' phenomenon.
All data shows: the threat of cancer is closer to everyone than ever before.
Currently, there is still no means to completely cure cancer.
Traditional tumor treatment consists of surgery + radiotherapy + chemotherapy, all of which primarily aim to kill tumor cells. Chemotherapy, in particular, is one of the main treatment methods for cancer, but the process can cause extreme suffering for patients. However, what is most difficult to accept is that many cancer patients, especially those with mid to late-stage cancer, may have good treatment effects at the time, but often within six months, over 70% of the tumor population will find metastasis in other important organs.
With a deeper understanding of cancer, targeted therapies and other curative methods have emerged, which have significant advantages over traditional treatment methods, but still have various shortcomings.
Emerging immunotherapy is regarded as the most promising treatment method.
Tumor immunotherapy works by mobilizing the body's immune system to enhance the anti-tumor immunity of the tumor microenvironment, thereby controlling and killing tumor cells. It treats the human immune system rather than directly targeting the tumor. Although the potential of cancer immunotherapy has not yet been fully realized, a new chapter has begun: in the list of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2013 selected by the journal "Science," immunotherapy ranked first. Major multinational pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to occupy this field, with Citibank predicting that in the next decade, cancer immunotherapy drugs will be used for 60% of late-stage cancer patients, potentially becoming the largest drug category, with sales expected to exceed $35 billion in 2023.
Traditional Chinese medicine has a profound understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment principles of cancer.
Traditional Chinese medicine has had a long-standing understanding of cancer, with records of the term 'tumor' found in oracle bones from the Yin ruins period. The earliest existing medical book, "Huangdi Neijing," classifies tumors according to their different locations of occurrence. By the Ming Dynasty, the medical community had begun to use the term 'cancer' to refer to malignant tumors.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the overall pathogenesis of tumors is 'deficiency of the righteous and excess of the evil,' therefore, the method of supporting the righteous and nurturing the root is of great significance in cancer prevention and treatment, permeating the entire process of tumor treatment. The purpose of supporting the righteous and nurturing the root is to enhance the body's righteous qi's ability to resist disease, achieving the goal of 'righteousness overcomes evil'.
Modern scientific research has proven that supportive treatment can regulate cellular immune function.
As early as the 1970s, renowned Chinese medicine oncology expert Professor Liu Jiaxiang proposed the argument that 'no deficiency can lead to tumors,' advocating for the supportive method as the main guiding method for treating malignant tumors. In recent decades, more and more researchers have recognized the unique role of traditional medicine in the regulation of chronic diseases.
Professor Lin Hongsheng from the Guang'anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences believes that "the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is the best method for treating tumors," and that "the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is bound to be a comprehensive treatment model with Chinese characteristics. The results of comprehensive treatment are superior to any single treatment." He also pointed out that qi-invigorating and righteous-supporting Chinese medicines can enhance the body's immune function, monitor, and kill cancer cells.
Academician Sun Yan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering believes that the application of supportive Chinese medicine can regulate cellular immune function and has been proven to improve patients' quality of life and long-term survival rates. In the book "Handbook of Antitumor Drugs," it is clearly stated that the treatment model of "inducing remission → supportive treatment → consolidation treatment → supportive treatment" is currently the most widely used treatment model for solid tumors. In recent decades, supportive therapy has been widely applied in clinical practice, benefiting many patients.
Prospects for supportive treatment.
The combination of Chinese and Western medicine is a characteristic of China, and comprehensive treatment has also been proven to be the most effective method in cancer treatment. There are many paths to the same goal; whether it is immunotherapy or supportive therapy, with the high integration of modern science and technology, the cross-infiltration of multiple sciences, and the close combination of life science technology and traditional Chinese medicine, the combined prevention and treatment of tumors with Chinese and Western medicine will surely yield greater results, benefiting more patients.
(The article comes from the county health public WeChat account)
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