Traditional medicine in breast cancer management with a focus on the Chinese integrative approach

Abstract

Cancer, from whatever medical perspective - north, south, east, west, African, North or South American, Asian, traditional, modern and/or synergistic - remains a poorly understood disease and illness. Disease pertains to the actual organic condition, whereas illness pertains to one's daily experience and suffering of this invasion of one's physical, mental and spiritual system (1). Certainly, carcinogens are involved in the disease and illness of cancer, while other biological mechanisms contribute to its initiation and progression. Breast cancer is a leading form of cancer in women but is much less common in men. A family history of the disorder is often obtainable, just as is the case in prostate cancer that afflicts middle-aged men. © 2006 Springer.