Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 739642, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2012/739642 Research Article The Quintessence of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Syndrome and Its Distribution among Advanced Cancer Patients with Constipation Chung-Wah Cheng,1 Annie O. L. Kwok,2 Zhao-Xiang Bian,3 and Doris M. W. Tse4 1 Yan Chai Hospital, Hong Kong Baptist University Clinical Centre for Training and Research in Chinese Medicine (West Kowloon), Kowloon, Hong Kong 2 Department of Medicine & Geriatrics, Caritas Medical Centre, Kowloon, Hong Kong 3 Clinical Division, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 4 Department of Medicine & Geriatrics, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Caritas Medical Centre, Kowloon, Hong Kong Correspondence should be addressed to Zhao-Xiang Bian, bzxiang@hkbu.edu.hk and Doris M. W. Tse, mwtse@ha.org.hk Received 11 January 2012; Accepted 6 April 2012 Academic Editor: Shi-Bing Su Copyright © 2012 Chung-Wah Cheng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Constipation is a common problem in advanced cancer patients; however, speciﬁc clinical guidelines on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome (Zhang) are not yet available. In this cross-sectional study, the TCM syndromes distribution and their common symptoms and signs among 225 constipated advanced cancer patients were determined. Results showed that 127 patients (56.4%) and 7 patients (3.1%) were in deﬁcient and excessive patterns, respectively, while 91 patients (40.4%) were in deﬁciency-excess complex. The distributions of the ﬁve syndromes were: Qi deﬁciency (93.3%), Qi stagnation (40.0%), blood (Yin) deﬁciency (28.9%), Yang deﬁciency (22.2%), and excess heat (5.8%). Furthermore, age, functional status, and level of blood haemoglobin were factors related to the type of TCM syndrome. A TCM prescription with the functions on replenishing the Deﬁciency, redirecting the ﬂow of Qi stagnation and moistening the dryness caused by the blood (Yin) deﬁciency can be made for the treatment of advance cancer patients with constipation. Robust trials are urgently needed for further justifying its eﬃcacy and safety in evidence-based approaches. 1. Introduction Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been in use for curing diseases and promoting the health of human for thou- sands of years in China. Its theory is derived from Chinese ancient philosophy and completed as the result of long-term clinical practices. Nowadays, TCM becomes the main component of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and gains increasing attention and popularity in the world [1]. Syndrome (Zheng), also called pattern, is the key concept in TCM theory [2]. It is a summary of the cause, nature, and location of the pathological change at a certain stage of disease [3] and is the foundation for making diagnosis and prescription. Chinese Medicine practitioners make the diﬀerentiation on the basis of all symptoms and signs collected by the four classic diagnostic methods, that is, observation, inquiry, smelling/listening, and palpation. Patients with same disease can present in diﬀerent syn- dromes. Oppositely, patients with diﬀerent diseases can present in same syndrome [4]. Due to the complexity and diversity of syndrome, TCM experts have attempted to quantize the description and standardize the terminology of syndrome since 1980s [5, 6]. Certain practice guidelines for diﬀerence syndromes of a speciﬁc disease are established as a reference for making diagnosis and prescribing treatment. Constipation is a common problem in advanced cancer patients, which aﬀects an estimated 32% to 87% of patients [7–10] and is only superseded by pain and anorexia [7]. Con- stipation is also a distressing symptom, and if untreated, can give rise to nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, urinary