Preliminary Study to Develop the Instrument on Pattern Identification for Lung Cancer

This study is to develop a standard tool for pattern identifications in Korean Medicine for Lung Cancer. The advisor committee for this study was organized by 12 Korean Medicine professors from the Korean Association of Traditional Oncology. The item and structure of instrument were based on review of published literature. We took the consultation twice from the advisor committee and additional advices by e-mail correspondences. We divided the symptoms and signs of lung cancer into 6 pattern identifications. - lung spleen both deficiency (肺脾兩虛), lung kidney both deficiency (肺腎兩虛), dampness phlegm obstructing the lung (濕痰蘊肺), qi stagnation blood stasis (氣滯血瘀), yin deficiency toxin heat (陰虛毒熱), and heat toxin accumulation (熱毒蘊結). We obtained the mean weights which reflected the standard deviations from each symptoms of the 6 pattern identifications which were scored on a 5-point scale by 12 experts. We designed the Korean medicine pattern identification tool for lung cancer. It was composed of 57 questions in the question-and-answer format. Though there are some limits that this study is not proved about validity and reliability, the instrument is meaningful and expected to be applied to the subsequent research.