How does TCM treat gastric cancer by treating its symptoms

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes treating both the symptoms and the root cause when treating diseases, and this is also true for treating gastric cancer. In traditional Chinese medicine, gastric cancer is classified as liver-stomach disharmony, spleen-stomach deficiency and cold, damp-heat and blood stasis, and qi and blood deficiency. In the treatment of gastric cancer, the symptoms are treated by softening and eliminating tumors, as follows:

1. Clear away heat and detoxify

In TCM syndrome differentiation, gastric cancer is classified as heat toxicity, therefore clearing away heat and detoxifying can inhibit the development of gastric cancer. In TCM treatment, Chinese medicines such as dandelion, Viola yedoensis, Scutellaria barbata, and Beehive that can clear away heat and detoxify should be used in syndrome differentiation prescriptions to treat gastric cancer patients. For patients who have not undergone surgical treatment, the medication can significantly inhibit tumor growth. For patients after surgery, if combined with Chinese medicine treatment, the patient's quality of life and survival time can be improved.

Most gastric cancers are solid tumors, which belong to the category of "scar accumulation" in traditional Chinese medicine. The symptoms are often persistent stomach pain, abdominal mass, hardness, and vomiting. During treatment, medication should be used to treat solid symptoms, that is, to prevent the tumor from continuing to grow and to dissipate the abdominal mass. This requires the application of traditional Chinese medicine methods of breaking blood stasis and eliminating symptoms, resolving phlegm, softening hard masses and dispersing nodules. Commonly used drugs include peach kernel, zedoaria, coix seed, etc. These drugs are combined in syndrome differentiation prescriptions to exert their tumor-suppressing effects on the one hand and dissipate their nodules on the other.

3. Promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis

Gastric cancer patients often secrete some cancer-promoting factors, which put the blood in a hypercoagulable state. Domestic clinical studies have found that after treatment with blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing methods for patients with purple tongue or ecchymosis or sluggish pulse, the tongue and pulse improve while the patient's mental state, physical strength, appetite, and food intake all improve, and their pain is significantly reduced or disappears.