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[Guest guest]

on the 3/02/01 at zrosenberg wrote

 

>These medicinals are pretty standard in Chinese treatment of cancer

>patients, and I certainly support their use when appropriate. However,

>cancer is a group of diseases, each with many stages. There are situations

>where cancer patients manifest with spleen qi xu damp and/or cold, and

these

>medicinals may not be appropriate. There may be other times where Liu

>Bao-yi's approach of outthrusting the pathogen from the ying and xue

aspects

>to the qi aspect and precipitating the bowels (I believe you call this the

>thoroughclear method in your book, " Warm Disease Theory " ) may also be

>appropriate. If there is anything I've learned in treating cancer patients,

>it is to expect the unexpected, and treat accordingly.

 

In essence you are saying treat according to diagnosis. I wholeheartedly

agree. It was not my intention to suggest a mechanical approach. Treatment

should always be according to diagnosis.

 

I do however think that it is potentially easy for heat toxins to be

overlooked in pattern diagnose of cancers where there are symptoms of

vacuity and heat. It is easy for heat symptoms to be rationalized as

outcomes of yin vacuity, rather than seen as consequences of damage by heat

toxins. Practioners who understand pattern diagnosis but have not had much

opportunity to study the aetiology of cancer and the effects of radiation

therapy from a TCM perspective make this error quite commonly. It is not

always easy to find the cause in pattern differentiation and determine

treatments according to causes.

 

Having made the diagnosis of heat toxin, it is generally most important to

use large doses of herbs for clearing heat toxins. If one doesn't do this

one is not determining treatments according to causes. I wouldn't disagree

that even after heat toxins have been diagnosed, there are times when herbs

for clearing heat toxins are inappropriate, but these are rare. Most of the

time heat clearing toxin resolving herbs should be used.

 

It would be interesting to compare notes on approaches to treating the

different stages of the different types of cancer. I ran numerous seminars

and clinical practicum's with Prof. Zhou Dai Han a few years ago. Most of my

understanding re. the TCM diagnosis and treatment of cancer comes from

these.

 

Garry Seifert.