ExclusiveTCM diagnosis for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) (1)

I met a patient with a stage 3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He was very painful due to the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and he could not persist. He began to seek help from an acupuncturist. His wife said to us, My husband had a throat bleeding in October 2021, after which he developed a lump on the right side of his neck and was treated with antibiotics for a few days. The lump was getting bigger, but the blood test report was normal. In April 2022, he was referred to an ENT specialist. A bumpy tumor is found in the nasal cavity. The biopsy of the nasal mass and the neck mass revealed stage 3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma. This patient has completed more than 20 chemotherapy treatments. The mouth is full of ulcer, vomiting, diarrhea at any time, unable to eat, and lost the sense of taste. He can only rely on painkillers to survive. During the break between chemotherapy, he found an acupuncturist for treatment. Soon, he regained his sense of taste and was able to eat. Tongue image is one of the important means of TCM diagnosis. Let's see what problem this patient's tongue image reflects. When the patient first arrived, the tongue showed a very weak spleen, and the tongue coating was geographic. The tongue is very red and swollen, and there are many prickles on the front of the tongue. Coupled with the rapid pulse, it shows that his body is very hot. Therefore, we must help him with heat clearing, detoxifying, and blood cooling methods. Vomiting and diarrhea are the most common adverse reactions after chemotherapy. His vomiting and diarrhea stopped after the first time I treated him. Now, his tongue appearance has also changed significantly. We know that cancer is a disease that is difficult to cure, and the reasons for its formation are difficult to explain. But Chinese medicine has its unique view on tumors and cancers. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, how does a tumor form? In ancient China, we have always had valuable experience in treating tumors. If a person's body's yin and yang are balanced, and qi and blood flow smoothly, basically diseases will not occur. Tumors in life are basically caused by several aspects. Spleen deficiency. The spleen has two functions of absorption, transportation, and transformation. Transportation and transformation is a function that promotes the movement of body fluids. The push runs poorly so that the body fluid becomes condensed and turn into phlegm. If qi is deficient, the blood will not circulate smoothly, and blood stasis will also form. Therefore, lumps are formed when phlegm and blood stasis intertwine, which is the basic idea of Chinese medicine. In addition, if the liver qi is not smooth, the flow of body fluids will be relatively poor, and body fluid will gradually become thick, eventually forming phlegm. How does Chinese medicine distinguish between benign and malignant tumors? Malignant tumors can also be distinguished by acupuncture. A patient with brain cancer. He doesn't know what happened, but he has a very severe headache. After acupuncture treatment, his pain disappeared immediately. However, half an hour after the acupuncture, he felt the same pain again. These patients are basically more malignant. Suppose you have a migraine. After we use acupuncture, the pain will be gradually relieved, but it will not recur. That's basically not on the malignant side. If the pain is still the same after half an hour after the treatment, then it is troublesome. Most cases are high possibility of malignant tumor. If those patients undergo chemotherapy, side effects are particularly severe, such as vomiting, diarrhea. Usually, you will see acupuncturists treat the patient on the body far away from the location of the symptoms. In the next episode, we will introduce how Dr. Huang specifically treated this nasopharyngeal cancer patient.