Treatment of advanced gastric cancer in the aged by the combination of qigong and medicinal herbs

The purpose of this paper is to study the short-term curative effect of the therapy on advanced cancer, the survival quality and the effect produced by immunobiochemistry through the analysis of the curative effect of advanced gastric cancer of the old people treated by qigong together with medicinal herbs.

Clinical information
1. Selection of cases:
40 patients in this group were all examined by gastroscopy, X-ray and ultrasonic examination of B-scope and the diagnosis was confirmed with pathological and cytological examinations.

Sex and age: Male 32; female 8; the ratio of male and female was 4:1. The age ranged from 60 to 80.

Positions of pathological changes:
Cardiac cancer 26 cases; cancer in the gastrobody 6 cases; cancer of gastric antrum 8 cases.

Pathological types:
Adenocarcinoma 18 cases; poor differentiated adenocarcinoma 12 cases; mucous adenocarcinoma 6 cases; signet-ring cell carcinoma 4 cases.

Subjects for research:
32 were patients with gastric carcinoma who lost the chance for operation because of their old age and weakness or because the disease that they suffered from belonged to the advanced stage. 4 were patients who had recurrence after radical operation. 2 had no effect of chemotherapy. 2 were patients who had undergone chemotherapy and could not persistently accept the treatment because of serious side effect.

2. Method of treatment:
The treating group was treated by qigong combined with herbs, developed and prepared as an anticancer drug known as'Weiliuping'. The control group was only treated by 'Weiliuping'.

Results:
1. The relief of main symptoms:
There was significant difference between the two groups. (P<O.05). 2. The influence of the immune functions:
In the control group, the index of immunity slightly increased after the treatment. However, the difference was not significant (P>O.05). In the treating group, the index of immunity obviously improved and the difference was significant (P<O.01).

Discussion:
The short-term effect of the treatment of advanced gastric cancer by qigong together with herbs 'Weiliuping' was satisfactory (the effective rate was 22. 7%). The effect was better than that of 'Tianxian pill' which was widely used to treat digestive tract cancer at home in recent years (the effective rate is only 1.2%).