TCM's understanding of lymphoma

Traditional Chinese medicine has a short history of knowing lymphoma. The earliest recorded discussion on lymphoma can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years ago. In ancient medical books such as "Zhengzhi Zhunsheng", "Surgery Zhengzong", and "Surgery Zhengzhi Quanshengji", they used different names for lymphoma, which can be summarized as "stone carbuncle", "loss of glory", "malignant core", "yin carbuncle", etc. However, their records of its etiology, pathogenesis, symptoms, signs, development, treatment, prognosis, etc. have many similarities with lymphoma.

Based on the theories of doctors in past dynasties, they believed that the etiology and pathogenesis of this disease include evil toxins, phlegm stagnation, and stagnation of fire. This disease may be caused by external cold and heat evil toxins, which stagnate in the body, heat and dryness, cold and phlegm stagnation, and long-term formation of this disease; or due to internal injuries caused by the seven emotions, worry, sadness and anger, liver depression and qi stagnation, phlegm and fire, qi stagnation and blood stasis, accumulation and formation; or due to improper diet, damage to the spleen and stomach, dampness and phlegm, and phlegm stagnation. This disease may cause qi weakness and physical damage, internal deficiency of internal organs, liver and kidney deficiency, and qi and blood deficiency.

According to the cause of the disease and the characteristics of its manifestations, lymphoma can be divided into cold phlegm stagnation type, qi stagnation and phlegm accumulation type, liver and kidney yin deficiency type, and blood heat and toxic blood stasis type, and the treatment medications are also different.