Integrative Approaches to Lung Cancer Metastasis: Bridging Chinese and Western Medicine Through Traditional Cultural Philosophy

Lung cancer metastasis remains a major cause of mortality and a central challenge in clinical oncology. This review examines lung cancer metastasis through an integrative framework combining Chinese and Western medicine. It emphasizes the role of traditional Chinese cultural philosophy as a theoretical foundation for integrative approaches. Rather than serving merely as a cultural background, philosophical concepts such as holism, dynamic balance, and the unity of heaven and humanity are discussed in relation to contemporary biomedical concepts, including systems thinking, network regulation, and individualized treatment strategies in metastasis management. Key cellular and molecular mechanisms of metastasis identified by modern biomedical research are summarized and compared with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) approaches that emphasize systemic regulation, syndrome differentiation, and microenvironmental balance. The analysis is organized according to major stages of the metastatic cascade, highlighting the complementary roles of molecularly targeted therapies and holistic regulatory strategies. Such interactions are particularly evident in immune regulation, tumor microenvironment modulation, and treatment tolerance. Finally, current challenges in integrative oncology are examined, including the lack of unified theoretical and terminological frameworks linking traditional and modern medical systems. The systematic incorporation of traditional Chinese cultural philosophy is proposed as a means to clarify conceptual connections and to support metastasis-focused research and clinical practice.