Around 70% of patients with advanced cancer are tormented by pain until their last moments, especially those with metastatic cancer, where cancer pain is the most common and significant symptom. For a few patients, even with the use of multiple analgesics, it is difficult to alleviate the symptoms. Enduring the pain solely with willpower severely affects their quality of life and survival period. According to Li Shucheng, Deputy Director of the Acupuncture Department at Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Province, acupuncture treatment can stimulate the brain to secrete a substance called endorphin, which has a sedative and analgesic effect on stubborn cancer pain. It can also significantly improve the patient's overall symptoms, stabilize their emotions, increase appetite, boost confidence in treatment, and help them calmly and positively face the final stage of life.
In the view of traditional Chinese medicine, cancer patients typically exhibit a deficiency of the upright energy and an excess of pathogenic factors. This means that there is a cancerous lesion present, and under the invasion of cancer, the body's functions are in a weakened state for a long period. Therefore, to achieve good results in acupuncture treatment, emphasis should be placed on the selection of acupuncture points and the application of techniques, combining tonification and reducing methods, to both support the upright energy and eliminate the pathogenic factors. For example, the most common experience-based acupuncture point selection for cancer pain is the "Four Gates." The term "four" refers to the Hegu and Taichong points, and the two points together are called the "Four Gates acupuncture points." These points are considered the life gates of the human body, with one point representing qi and the other representing blood, one representing yin and the other yang, one representing the hand and the other the foot, allowing for the adjustment of the upper and lower yin and yang. A famous acupuncture physician from the Ming Dynasty once said, "For cold, heat, numbness, and pain, just open the Four Gates." The focus of selecting the Four Gates acupuncture points is to regulate qi and promote blood circulation, ensuring unobstructed meridians, which leads to pain relief. In addition to the experience-based Four Gates acupuncture points, different acupuncture points are selected and paired based on the location of the patient's tumor and the presence of cold, heat, deficiency, or excess. In terms of technique, the approach of tonifying qi before reducing excess is adopted. In acupuncture technique, heavy pressure and light lifting are used for tonification, while light pressure and heavy lifting are used for reducing. For cancer pain patients, after applying heavy pressure during needle insertion, gentle techniques are used to tonify the deficiency, and only then are stronger techniques used to eliminate excess. "When administering acupuncture treatment to cancer pain patients, acupuncturists must concentrate fully, focus their energy on the needle, and correctly apply tonification and reducing techniques to relieve the patient's suffering."
