In Palliative care, we meet patients with easy-bleeding superficial malignant tumors, such as head and neck cancer, skin metastasis of all kinds of cancer and unresectable breast cancer. But it is not easy to control bleeding even though we use various means, and many doctors have difficulties in stopping bleeding. We report a case with a recurrent tumor of pharyngeal cancer that showed easy-bleeding and discharged massive exudates. Although she received several alcohol local injections because of bleeding of the tumor, she needed a dressing change over 5 times in a day. It made her QOL worse. In this case, we used Mohs paste and after using it, the surface had been fixed and dried up, resulting in a decrease in bleeding, exudate, frequency of dressing change and bad odor. Mohs paste was made of distilled water, zinc chloride, zinc starch and Glycerol. Zinc chloride changes to zinc ion by water in the wound and makes protein cohere and thereafter tissues, vessels and cell membrane of bacteria are fixed chemically. We could stop bleeding for 15 days with only 20 minutes contact with Mohs paste, and massive exudates and bad odor decreased. Mohs paste, which is made in your hospital pharmacy with cheap materials, can be used for bleeding or massive exudates repeatedly if there is not a thick blood vessel anatomically under the tumor. It was effective to improve her QOL. Palliat Care Res 2009; 4(2): 346-350

We report a case of burning mouth syndrome (BMS) in a woman in her 70s whose pain was relieved by goshajinkigan alone. Five years ago, she became aware of tongue pain when she was under emotional stress. We diagnosed it as BMS. Since she had been taking antidepressants for depression for a long time and was more bothered by symptoms of kidney deficiency, such as back pain and numbness in the lower limbs, than tongue pain, we first prescribed goshajinkigan to improve her general condition. After that, not only her kidney deficiency but her BMS was relieved. The patient is currently under follow-up, but there is no tendency to relapse BMS. We presume that the correction of the patient’s general condition by Kampo medicine would lead to the improvement of her BMS.

Background: The National Cancer Center Institute for Cancer Control has trained regional palliative care coordinators to disseminate personnel promoting collaboration between cancer hospitals and regional institutions. We examined the effectiveness of the training. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted in February 2022 among facilities participating in the training sessions from 2016 to 2021. Results: One-hundred sixteen facilities responded. The results were classified as ‘positive change (78%)’ and ‘negative change (0%)’. Regarding ‘factors inhibiting the smooth transition of terminal cancer patients from hospital to home,’ ‘patients’ social background (e.g., living alone, old age, etc.) interferes with the transition to home care (88%)’ and ‘patients’ anxiety about home care (83%)’ were the most common factors. Conclusion: Nearly 80% of participants reported positive changes, indicating that the training has had a certain effect. With regard to inhibiting factors, we plan to consider how training should be conducted so that it can address the individual issues in each region.