I Can Hear the Heart's Voice of Traditional Chinese Medicine-Chapter 316 - 140: Better to Coexist with Cancer Than to Battle It

Post-operative recurrence of kidney cancer, bone metastasis, no chance of another surgery.

Once bone metastasis has occurred, the opportunity for further surgery is basically lost.

Moreover, Western medicine primarily relies on medication or chemotherapy to control it, which can easily accelerate the decline in the life of a cancer patient. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Thinking of this, Lu Xuan murmured, "I can’t say how much longer it can be extended; it depends on the subsequent treatment effects. The philosophy between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine differs. When it comes to cancer, traditional Chinese medicine generally advocates for patients to live with cancer, which is to use methods to control the spread of cancer cells, while alleviating the suffering cancer causes to the patient.

When it comes to the means by which traditional Chinese medicine controls cancer, the origin of cancer must be mentioned.

The formation of cancer originates from the malignant transformation of a single cell. This type of cell does not comply with the body’s normal regulation; it has autonomy in behavior, and it is irreversible.

The treatment of cancer in Western medicine consistently focuses on "eliminating all cancer cells," primarily using radical surgery and high-dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Traditional approaches to cancer treatment overly pursue thorough cures, using drugs to "bombard" tumor cells repeatedly. Sometimes, not trusting radical surgery, they might even expand the scope to ensure a cure, to prevent the spread of cancer cells to other areas.

The invasion of the disease plus the enormous trauma from medical treatment causes patients to severely lose Primordial Qi.

However, as early as the 1980s, the World Health Organization proposed the "one-third" doctrine for cancer treatment: one-third of tumors can be cured, one-third of tumor patients can live with the tumor, and for one-third of tumor patients, life can actually be extended. This is actually quite similar to the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine."

At this point, Lu Xuan paused, then continued, "With the deepening of cancer research, especially with the new understanding of the concept of malignant tumors, the principles of treating cancer in Western medicine have also undergone significant changes, starting to emphasize that the body’s overall condition is most important as it determines the ultimate fate of the host.

The natural growth rate of cancer is variable, and effective treatment does not require the tumor to be completely eliminated.

In fact, in adults, that is, in us, tumors exist more or less. It’s just that most of them are not discovered, not diagnosed as ’cancer,’ so one could say that we are all in an unknowing state of ’living with tumors.’

Yu Xiaowan’s face froze, obviously frightened by Lu Xuan’s statement.

In this era of cancer phobia, Lu Xuan spoke of how most people are actually in a state of living with tumors, which to an ordinary person like Xiaowan is extremely shocking, and her face involuntarily changed, becoming somewhat unpleasant, even with a trace of concern in her eyes.

Especially considering her father, Yu Yunxing, is himself a cancer patient, one can only imagine the impact of Lu Xuan’s words on Xiaowan.

Not just Yu Xiaowan, even Ji Xiuwen and Su Kenan, at this moment, after hearing Lu Xuan’s words, couldn’t help but take a breath, being somewhat shocked.

"Doesn’t this mean we might all be in a state of living with tumors?" Ji Xiuwen took a deep breath and couldn’t help asking.

"You could say that."

Lu Xuan explained, "The human body contains tens of trillions of cells, and these cells are constantly dividing in our bodies. During cell division, there are always one or two cells that will undergo some mutation, changing in an uncontrollable direction for the body. But these changes, in almost all cases, are found and cleared by the body’s immune system.

But there are some cases where this mutation escapes the clearance of the body’s immune system and thus survives. However, most of these anomalies are benign and do not affect our lives, so there is no need to worry too much,"

Ji Xiuwen nodded.

Yu Xiaowan’s expression also improved a lot.

Lu Xuan looked at the three of them and said, "Returning to the matter of living with cancer, for those patients who are ’living with cancer’ yet undiscovered, it might be a kind of luck, because for patients with thyroid cancer, prostate cancer, or breast cancer, the cancer is originally in a relatively static state, and whether or not to treat it actually does not affect the patient’s quality of life.

But if they are accidentally found during a physical examination, they would hastily undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy amidst panic, with unknown prognoses.

The concept of ’living with tumors’ now refers to patients who, after treatment, are in a relatively balanced state with their body and tumor, where tumor cells are in a ’static’ or ’dormant’ state for a certain period, and the body still has a certain immune response to cancer. The patient generally is in good condition, can even work and live independently, and the condition is stable and tends to improve over time.

Western medicine’s understanding and treatment principles of tumors have undoubtedly moved closer to traditional Chinese medicine’s understanding and treatment principles. This proves that the introduction of the concept of ’living with cancer’ aligns more with traditional Chinese medicine theories, shifting from a localized view in Western medicine to an overall view in traditional Chinese medicine, which combines the reinforcement of upright Qi and the expulsion of evil, or the combination of ’attack’ and ’support,’ to achieve long-term coexistence of the patient and cancer.

This is the real attitude towards treating cancer. Instead of immediately resorting to extreme therapeutic measures upon discovering cancer, which not only fails to cure the disease but also may cause the patient to suffer a severe loss of Primordial Qi due to the various treatment methods.

Speaking of these, one must mention that there is finally a consensus between Western and traditional Chinese medicine regarding cancer treatment. Or it could be said that Western medicine is transitioning towards the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, viewing cancer as a chronic disease, and treating cancer as a prolonged battle.