One hundred and twenty-three cases of advanced cancer treated simultaneously with drugs and qigong has been reported in this paper. These were in-patients of our Department during the past 5 years. Among them there were 60 males and 63 females, the youngest was 20 years old, the average age was 47 years old. These patients were diagnosed pathologically as malignant cancer, 70 cases were in the III stage, 53 cases in the IV stage, of which, cancer of stomach accounted for 42.23%, cancer of the large intestine 31.70%, mastocarcinoma 11.29 %, and cancer of the esophagus and cardiac carcinoma 8.1%.
The 123 patients were divider into two groups. The observation group including 97 cases treated with drugs and qigong exercises, the control group, which consisted of 30 cases, was treated by drugs alone. Similar drug was given to the two groups. Each patient who received the therapy of drugs and qigong did the qigong exercise for over 2 hours a day, 3 months as a course, the longest might be up to 6 months. Symptoms, signs, body weight and immunological indices, etc. were recorded before and after treatment. The results were as follows:
1. Amelioration of general symptoms: 81.7% of the patients regained strength, 63% improved appetite, 33.3% were free from diarrhea or irregular defecation in the observation group, while the rates of the patients in the control group were 10%, 10% and 6% respectively. The difference between the two groups is significant (P<0.01).
2. Body weight: In the observation group, 50.54% of the patients' body weight increased more than 3 kg, and 5.4% of the patients' body weight decreased more than 3 kg. In the control group, the patients' body weight increased or decreased by 3 kg and more, accounting for 13.33% and 30% respectively. The difference between the two groups is marked.
3. Phagocytosis of macrophages In the observation group, the phagocytic rate of macrophages of the patients was 34.68±8.90% before the therapy, and it became 46.98±8.20% after the treatment, increasing by 12.31%; the phagocytic indices of macrophages were 0.45±0.108 and 0.63±0.130 respectively before and after the combined therapy. In the control group the phagocytic rate did not elevate, but decreased by 7.87%, the phagocytic indices were 0.63±0.183 and 0.50±0.138 respectively before and after the drug therapy alone. There is a marked difference between the two groups.
4. In addition, it has been observed that the erythrocyte sedimentation of 23 out of 93 patients, and the hepatic function of 20 out of them in the observation group have turned to normal, while there were only 3 cases whose erythrocyte sedimentation, and 2 cases whose hepatic function have turned to normal in the control group. The difference between the two groups is significant.
To sum up, it suggests that the qigong therapy is helpful to some extent to ameliorating the symptoms, improving appetite, strengthening constitution and increasing the ability of self-cure. Qigong can regulate the mind, heart, qi and blood so as to get rid of pessimism and eliminate the evil factors, therefore it is really an effective, simple, easy and no side-effect supplementary treatment.
Because limited cases were observed and the time of observation was shorter, it is necessary to do further study.
