Professor Renting Li’s Combination of Internal and External Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treating Radiation Enteritis

Abstract

Radiotherapy is a common treatment for abdominal and pelvic malignancies with bone metastases. However, some patients develop radiation enteritis (RE) during the treatment or 2 months or more after the treatment, which seriously affects their quality of life. At present, the curative effect of western medicine is poor. Professor Renting Li believes that radiation kills tumor cells but at the same time, it damages the healthy Qi of the human body. Radiation causes heat and poison to accumulate in the intestinal tract, consumes and hurts Yin fluid, burns the vein, leads to deficiency of healthy Qi and poor detoxification, as well as cause blood stasis after a period of time. All these result in the combination of heat, blood stasis, and poison, manifesting as abdominal pain, diarrhea, mucus in stools, purulent and bloody stools, etc. Therefore, Professor Renting Li proposed the use of traditional Chinese medicine retention enema combined with oral traditional Chinese medicine to reduce symptoms, remove toxins, and improve the quality of life of patients.