Is Chinese medicine useful for liver cancer

In the Chinese tradition, there is a deep affection for Chinese medicine, and Chinese medicine's syndrome differentiation and treatment are deeply rooted in people's hearts. In the media or by word of mouth, there are often reports of Chinese medicine creating miracles of bringing the dead back to life. Therefore, Chinese people firmly believe that the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is better than Western medicine. However, liver cancer patients are not recommended to take Chinese medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine generally believes that tumors are "knots", "stasis" and "poison". To treat tumors, "softening and dispersing knots", "activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis", "fighting poison with poison", and "clearing away heat and detoxifying" are often used. Although liver cancer also has the general characteristics of tumors, its growth, metastasis and recurrence are closely related to angiogenesis. In interventional treatment, why can we control the tumor well by only needing an emulsion made of iodized oil and chemotherapy drugs to embolize into the blood vessels of liver cancer? Why can it become the first choice of treatment besides surgical resection?

Why has Sorafenib (Nexavar) become the only molecular targeted drug recognized in the world that can effectively treat patients with advanced liver cancer? It has become the first-line drug for advanced liver cancer in Europe and the United States. This is because one of the important functions of Nexavar is to inhibit angiogenesis. It can be seen that the treatment of liver cancer requires embolization and inhibition of tumor blood vessels, while the concept of traditional Chinese medicine to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, soften and disperse nodules is exactly the opposite.

Liver cancer in Chinese people is closely related to post-hepatitis cirrhosis. Most patients with liver cancer have a background of cirrhosis and insufficient liver reserve function. Everything we eat must be metabolized and detoxified in the liver. Prescriptions that "use poison to attack poison, clear away heat and detoxify" often increase the burden on the liver and aggravate liver damage. Taking them during interventional treatment is harmful rather than beneficial.

Therefore, it is not recommended for liver cancer patients to take Chinese medicine. If there is a stubborn patient who insists on taking Chinese medicine, he will be advised to take prescriptions for "warming and nourishing, harmonizing the stomach, and regulating qi".