癌痛的中医药治疗

Traditional Chinese medicine for cancer pain

癌痛是恶性肿瘤的常见症状之一,严重影响患者的生活质量。目前癌痛的西医治疗方法主要是在抗肿瘤治疗基础上加药物三阶梯止痛法、生物治疗、神经阻滞治疗等。尽管如此,经过常规治疗仍有50%的癌症患者忍受的疼痛程度足以影响他们的日常生活。临床上中医药治疗癌痛多采用内服、外敷、针灸等手段,疗效肯定,且有持续性、无成瘾性、无耐药性等特点。但中医药治疗癌痛的机制尚不明确,有关中药治疗癌痛的实验研究及药物安全性评价报道较少,有待运用现代科学技术加以研究论证。

Pain is one of the common symptoms of cancer which seriously affects the quality of life of the patients.Cancer pain is mainly treated with the three-step method,biological therapy or nerve block therapy based on antitumor therapy.However,up to 50 percent of patients with cancer-related pain do not receive adequate pain relief,affecting their physical and psychological well-being,and leading to a lower quality of life for the patient after conventional treatment.Clinical observation suggests that traditional Chinese medicine may alleviate cancer-related pain either by oral administration,topical administration,acupuncture or other means with continuing non-addictive and non-drug-resistant qualities.However,scientific evaluation of the efficacy of herbs in the treatment of pain is insufficient;the underlying mechanisms are unclear and,safety and toxicity remain a concern.