title: Traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of symptoms in patients with advanced cancer.
abstract: Patients with advanced malignancies are often suffered from deficient vital qi, which is clinically presented as cancer-related pain, anorexia, nausea/vomiting, fatigue, fever, indigestion, and constipation, which severely lower the quality of life and even shorten the survival of these patients. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history and rich experiences in treating malignancies. In addition to surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other modern therapies, the TCM-based treatment can dramatically alleviate the clinical symptoms and improve the quality of life. This article analyzes the TCM treatment for the cancer pain, nausea/vomiting and cancer-related fatigue in patients with advanced malignancies, and the TCM-based emotional care for these patients are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Changzhou Cancer Hospital, Affiliated of Soochow University, Changzhou 213001, China. dryangling@yeah.net.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ling
keywords: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM); advanced cancer; anorexia; constipation; fatigue; fever; indigestion; nausea; pain; quality of life; vomiting