Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment for Gastric Cancer

At present, the incidence of gastric cancer is the highest in the world, and unreasonable eating habits are the main cause of cancer. Gastric cancer is relatively hidden, and nearly half of early gastric cancer patients have no clinical symptoms. Therefore, gastroscopy is the gold standard for gastric cancer screening and diagnosis.

TCM has rich clinical experience and unique insights into the treatment of gastric cancer. TCM emphasizes the spleen and stomach in the treatment of gastric cancer. On the one hand, it is caused by the deficiency of the body's vital energy, especially the weakness of the spleen and stomach. On the other hand, it is caused by long-term uncontrolled diet and emotional discomfort, which gradually form phlegm and fire, qi stagnation and blood stasis.

In the treatment of gastric cancer with traditional Chinese medicine, the first thing to emphasize is syndrome differentiation. The correctness of syndrome differentiation directly determines the effectiveness of gastric cancer treatment. There are three most common syndrome differentiation types in clinical practice, namely, phlegm and qi stagnation type, blood stasis and internal obstruction type, and spleen and stomach deficiency and cold type, which focus on distinguishing qi, blood, cold, heat, deficiency, and excess.

In addition, because gastric cancer is a mass in the stomach, the treatment of gastric cancer in traditional Chinese medicine is mainly based on strengthening the body's resistance and eliminating evil, relieving depression and softening hard masses. The role of strengthening the body's resistance is to adjust the body and improve the patient's immunity, while eliminating evil includes softening hard masses and dispersing nodules, removing phlegm and dampness, clearing away heat and detoxifying, and promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis.

Therefore, the key points of TCM treatment of gastric cancer are as follows:

1. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment focuses on soothing the liver and regulating qi, and makes heavy use of depression-relieving drugs and liver-soothing drugs such as tangerine peel, bitter orange peel, costus root, bergamot, turmeric, etc.

Second, Chinese medicine emphasizes attacking accumulation, and the main principle of treatment is to resolve phlegm and blood stasis. For resolving phlegm, you can use seaweed, kelp, Poria cocos, etc., and for resolving blood stasis, you can use Trigonella ternata, Curcuma zedoaria, frankincense, etc.

3. TCM treatment should pay attention to replenishing the vital energy, strengthening the body, and replenishing the spleen, stomach, and kidney, especially the stomach qi. Astragalus, Atractylodes macrocephala, Glehnia littoralis, and American ginseng are commonly used to replenish qi.