中医药与肿瘤免疫治疗

中医理论认为阴阳失衡、正虚邪盛是肿瘤发生发展的关键原因。调整阴阳、扶正祛邪是肿瘤治疗的重点。中医强调通过调整阴阳、扶助正气达到阴平阳秘、正气充足的机体平衡状态,从而实现控制肿瘤生长、改善患者临床症状、提高患者生活质量等目的。这与现代医学肿瘤免疫治疗时,通过打破免疫耐受、逆转免疫逃逸从而重建机体正常免疫功能、增强抗肿瘤能力的基本治疗思路契合一致,两者具有异曲同工之妙。中医的调整阴阳、扶正抗癌思想对肿瘤免疫治疗具有重要的指导意义。中医药扶正抗癌的疗效机制可能主要与肿瘤免疫相关。

Traditional Chinese medicine and tumor immunotherapy

The theory of traditional Chinese medicine considers that the imbalance of Yin-Yang and the weakened body resistance and excessive pathogenic qi are the reasons to the occurrence and development of cancer, and thus adjusting Yin-Yang and strengthening the body resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors are the key points of cancer treatment. It emphasizes that the balanced state of body with balance of Yin-Yang and sufficient body resistance can be achieved by adjusting Yin-Yang and strengthening the body resistance, so as to control tumor growth, improve patients’ clinical symptoms and improve patients’ quality of life, which is consistent with the basic treatment idea of modern medical oncology immunotherapy. Modern medical oncology immunotherapy can rebuild normal immune function and enhance anti-tumor ability by breaking immune tolerance and reversing immune escape. Therefore, they have the different approaches but equally satisfactory in tumor treatment. The thought of adjusting Yin-Yang and strengthening the body resistance to suppress cancer in traditional Chinese medicine have important guiding significance for the immunotherapy of tumors. The therapeutic mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine strengthening the body resistance to suppress cancer may be mainly related to tumor immunity.