In TCM Cancer Treatment, Decoctions Are The Most Essential
Those who choose TCM to treat cancer must not overlook the role of decoctions (tangyao). Modern pharmaceuticals are highly developed, and a great many patent anti-cancer Chinese medicines (zhongcheng yao) have appeared. Many patients, when they accept TCM treatment, take only patent medicines, and after doing so believe they are already using the best TCM anti-cancer method. In fact this is a very serious misunderstanding: a TCM anti-cancer plan without a decoction formula has very poor efficacy.
Treating cancer requires comprehensive attention to the whole person. Some patent preparations address only one aspect, and the efficacy of anti-cancer patent medicines has always had to be assisted by simultaneously taken decoctions. In fact, most patients who have successfully overcome cancer relied solely on Chinese herbal decoctions. The medicinal force of a decoction is stronger than that of a patent medicine. A decoction prescription takes the patient's various conditions into comprehensive account; the formula usually contains many herbs, each with its own particular action, and the cooperation of many herbs works better for the patient.
Decoctions embody individualized treatment, whereas patent medicines are assembly-line treatment. In diagnosing and treating a patient, a TCM physician gathers all kinds of signs and symptoms, then on that basis carries out a comprehensive analysis of the condition, and draws on his medical knowledge and therapeutic experience to write an individualized prescription for the patient. This kind of custom-made decoction, if properly prescribed, takes all aspects of the patient into account, comprehensively improving and strengthening the patient's constitution, and yields better results.
The problems present in a cancer patient's body are usually multiple rather than single. Some patients also have complications such as anemia, cachexia, wasting syndrome, or cancer fever. Relying solely on patent medicines can at most deal with one of these problems, while the others are equally capable of causing death. If they are left untreated, the patient will die during treatment as the complications progress. A single decoction prescription can address as many of the patient's various conditions as possible at the same time, prolonging survival, buying time for treatment, and maximizing the hope of overcoming the cancer.