2016年5月17日星期二

A retired doctor from Macau developed a liking for FUDA via NanoKnife

At 9:00 a.m., April 29, 2016, President Niu Lizhi, Director Xu Jiongyuan, Dr. Shi Hongxia, and other medical workers were making their routine rounds. Right after they walked into room 512, Mrs. Huang from Macau eagerly reported her husband’s condition to the doctors. “Today is the best day for my husband over the past half a year. In the morning, he told me unexpectedly that he wanted to have something to eat and he ate a half bowel of porridge delivered by the caregiver. It’s a great thing for him to be able to eat.”

How come Mr. Huang is contented with having just a half bowel of porridge? His story should be traced back to half a year ago. 

“Stomachache” covered up the fact that he was having pancreatic cancer

Mr. Huang, 73 years old, told us that his family has been in the business of textile for many years but he did not carry on his family’s business. Instead, he chose to pursue an utterly different occupation-being a doctor. After graduated from Guangzhou Medical School (currently Guangzhou Medical University), he has been engaged in medicine for about half a century. Once served as a radiologist Kiang Wu Hospital in Macau, he opened up his own examination center later. At present, he has retired from his work for a couple of years.

Last May, Mr. Huang started to have upper abdominal pain. In the beginning, He did not pay any attention to it and had it treated as gastritis for a period of time but the treatment showed futile. As the disease progressed, he had aggravated abdominal pain, which had radiated to the back. He couldn’t eat and sleep due to the severe pain. Last August, he received abdomen CT scan, which showed a mass sizing 4.3cmx3.5cm. He was confirmed to have pancreatic cancer.

Decisively rejected chemotherapy

When asked about Mr. Huang’s condition, Mrs. Huang had tears welled up in her eyes. “As he had abdominal pain very often, we had thought that he was just having stomachache but stomach medicine produced no effect. Then I went with him to the hospital for examination. The blood tests showed high bilirubin and high white blood cell. Further examination evidenced that he should have been suffering from pancreatic cancer. I was reduced into despair as I know pancreatic cancer is really hard to treat.”

As a doctor, Mr. Huang knew very well the malignancy of pancreatic cancer. Being called the King of Cancer, pancreatic cancer is primarily treated with operation. However, he has missed the prime time for operation as the mass in pancreas had grown to over 4cm. Doctors in Macau suggested him to do chemotherapy but he refused. He said, “The major treatment goals for cancer are to remove the tumor, alleviate the pain and prolong patient’s lifespan. Though chemotherapy is an option, it is not producing any actual benefits to pancreatic cancer patients; instead, it is only causing such side effects as nausea and vomiting, which will inflict greater pain to patients.” Hence, Mr. Huang has been adopting TCM treatment, at the same time, hoping he could find more appropriate and effective treatments.

Unfortunately, TCM was not able to control the tumor progression. He was not able to sleep and eat and had his weight reduced from 83kg to 46kg. In the middle of March, he found that he was having clay colored stool and dark brown urine as well as the symptom of jaundice. The relevant examinations showed that he was having pancreatic cancer with lymph nodes metastases, which was accompanied by obstructive jaundice. He received common bile duct stenting at Kiang Wu Hospital. During his hospitalization, he went through infection and fever.

Getting to know Fuda Cancer Hospital via NanoKnife

Prof. Zhu at Kiang Wu Hospital recommended NanoKnife that is available at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital. As the President of the Macau Society of Surgery, he is well connected with the medical community in mainland China. In October 2015, He invited Niu Lizhi, President of Fuda Cancer Hospital to deliver a speech on NanoKnife at an academic conference held in Macau. He also made a special trip to Fuda Cancer Hospital to investigate the therapeutic effect of NanoKnife for pancreatic cancer.

Having accepted Prof. Zhu’s suggestion, Mr. Zhu came to Fuda Cancer Hospital for treatment on April 18 with the company of Prof. Zhu and Prof. Luo. Thus, he became the first pancreatic cancer to be treated with NanoKnife in Macau.

Upon admission, Mr. Huang completed relevant checkups, which found that the pancreatic tumor had grown to the size of 6.3cmx3.7cmx5cm. He had intense pain, high tumor marker and high white blood cell. Considering the rapid tumor progression, the medical team at Fuda Cancer Hospital had had several rounds of discussion on his treatment plan and finally decided to perform PTCD and Irreversible Electroporation for him on April 20. Prof. Zhu and Prof. Luo also participated in the procedure.

According to Prof. Niu Lizhi, due to the special location of pancreas (surrounded by intestinal canal, bile duct, nerves, blood vessels, etc.), conventional operation or thermal ablation would easily injure these organs and tissues. NanoKnife, after being approved for clinical application, has become a safer and more effective treatment for pancreatic cancer as the important tissues and organs such as bile duct, blood vessels, nerves, intestinal canals can be kept intact during the procedure.

As the mass in pancreas was quite big, the ablation was done in four times. The CT scan one week after NanoKnife showed that the mass shrank from 6.3cm to 5.5cm. Tumor marker decreased from over 600 to 500. The postoperative recovery is good.
 
The couple spoke highly of the medical staffs at FUDA


As his condition is improving day by day, Mr. Huang curled up a long-lost smile

What the couple said most frequently to the medical workers at FUDA are “thank you” and “I appreciate it”. During his hospitalization, the couple has been confronted with things quite unexpected. They never thought that doctors at FUDA are having such great technologies. After received NanoKnife, Mr. Huang has had his pain greatly relieved and he is able to sleep and eat. They never thought that medical workers at FUDA are so considerate. Prof. Niu is always making rounds two times a day and asked about his condition even when he was on business trip. They never thought that medical workers are so patient-oriented. Medical workers, including president, doctors, nurses and cleaners, are so refined and courteous to patients.

On April 30, Mr. Huang was discharged from Fuda Cancer Hospital. He will continue to receive some consolidation therapy in Macau. We believe he will make a good recovery.

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