Mr H, 59 years, engineer, first visited our clinic for upper abdominal pain. He was suspected to have pancreatic cancer by conventional WM, as he had constant upper abdominal pain, and a solid tumour was found at the head of the pancreas, confirmed by ultrasound, MRI scan and blood tests. An operation was scheduled to follow in three weeks. Because of his unbearable pain he visited the author for relief. He also manifested nausea, poor appetite, weight loss, loose bowel movement and exhaustion.
Key clinical findings included weight loss, painful facial complexion and slight jaundice. He appeared to have pain at the right and central upper abdomen without rebound pain, muscular tenderness and abdominal distension. He had a light red tongue with tooth marks and a white coating, plus a wiry-tight pulse.
Acupuncture and herbal medicine were administered to move stagnant abdominal qi, to eliminate Blood stasis and to calm down the yang.
The patient visited our clinic the following week reporting a 50% reduction of pain. The jaundice had disappeared. The same treatments were given and the pain continued to reduce in the following weeks. After the operation he was told that a tissue mass had been found at the head of his pancreas, so a part of his pancreas had been removed. No chemotherapy and radiotherapy were offered. He was continually given regular acupuncture and herbal medicine to treat his mildly raised sugar levels following the operation until his completely recovery (treatment briefing is listed in appendix one).
Reference:
Dan Jiang*, Fan-Yi Meng , Lily Li and Fan Qu. (2016). The Role of Chinese Medicine in Cancer Care—a Critical Review World Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2016; 2(1): 68–73