Mr. Deng Fibrosarcoma from Jiangmen City

he 44 year-old Mr. Deng from Jiangmen City has a hard lump on his right frontal for a collision in his youth. For more than 20 years, the lump has become bigger and bigger from the size of a pimple. Though having surgery twice, the lump developed as an anchor-sized giant tumor eventually. Mr. Deng yesterday morning accepted surgery at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital, and the resected tumor weighed 3.08 kilogram.

1 Patient from tense state to steady state

In the morning of August 3, Mr. Deng got up and washed up early. What awaited him was a surgery that would change his fate. 

Half past eight, Mr. Deng’s door was open. He smiled lightly at media reporters waited for a long time outside in a wheelchair. Pushed by nurse, he was into operation room in front of reporters.

After entering operation room, Mr. Deng was nervous apparently. His eyes couldn’t stop blinking, and the detector showed his heartbeat was fast. Prof. Zeng Zongyuan smiled and said, “Relax, everything will be fine after a sleep.” Mr. Deng was into steady state gradually under anesthesia.

 

Half past nine, the surgery started formally. Headed by Prof. Zeng Zongyuan, honorary president of Fuda Cancer Hospital, leading expert of Head & Neck Cancer Center, a team consisted of attending physician Xu Jiongyuan, resident Liu Shupeng and anesthetist Fang Gang started to remove the fibrosarcoma on Mr. Deng’s head.

2 Reveal difficult points of the surgery

For Mr. Deng’s tumor was giant and spread into muscles, it’s difficult to operate. Problems included postoperative large wound, recurrence prevention and massive bleeding. Before surgery, the tumor of patient’s head suddenly bled. Prof. Zeng immediately stopped bleeding and kept the wound clean for him. In order to prevent rebleeding, doctors kept patient lying on his side.

 

Zeng Zongyuan explained, “The greatest difficulty of this surgery is that the tumor was on head. There are more than 10 great vessels around the tumor, which is easy to cause massive bleeding. Therefore, doctors must be very discreet and try to reduce bleeding during the surgery.”

 

At 9:35 am, doctors started remove the tumor. At first, medical staff in the operation room disinfected patient’s right frontal. Then, Prof. Zeng Zongyuan conducted continuous suture of sculpt skin on the margin to the tumor about one centimeter, which aimed to make a circum to stop most vascular in the sculp. Then doctor cut sculpt skin to the edge of tumor about 0.5cm, and used hemoclip and high frequency electrocoagulator to stop bleeding once confronted with bleeding.

 

Medical staff on and off the operating plat cooperated very well. Anesthetist watched the screen and observed patient’s vital signs. Blood and liquid were supplemented in time for keeping patient’s condition stable. The surgery was performed in good order.

 

At 10:40 am, Prof. Zeng succeeded in removing the biggest tumor of patient’s head. Nurse used stainless steel basin to catch at once.

So far, Prof. Zeng has never slackened his effort. He continued to remove the rest cancerous tissues adhered in patient’s frontal and skin. During resection, he used hemoclip to stop bleeding when confronted with more bleeding. It could be said that Prof. Zeng was resecting the tumor as stoping bleeding during the surgery.

 

After whole layer suturing the rest of scalp skin and subcutaneous tissues, there was still a 6*6 centimeter wide scalp skin tissues lost. Therefore, Prof. Zeng decided to take a skin from patient’s right chest for suture right away.

 

At 1 pm, skin grafting was finished successfully. And doctors conducted pressure dressing.

 

Five-hour operation was plain sailing. The surgical team headed by Prof. Zeng Zongyuan succeeded in removing the complete tumor, and the amount of bleeding during surgery was just 200ml.

 

After surgery, Prof. Zeng Zongyuan took steel basin and trotted over to the door of operation room at once. He told anxious patient’s family, “The surgery is very successful. Mr. Deng’s tumor has been removed. You can relax.” Hanging hearts of Mr. Deng’s family could finally smooth down, they repeated “thank you” to Prof. Zeng excited.

 

Ladana Lung Cancer with Bone Metastasis Thailand

On June 19, the day before Ladana was discharged from hospital, medical workers dressed her up and took her to dinner for celebrating the success of her operation. Ladana was happy like a child. Her hair was carefully combed. And she was on a blue dress with a stylish silk scarf. At 62, she was full of vitality, and didn’t seem like a cancer patient. 

Ladana from Thailand, a last stage lung cancer patient with bone metastasis

In January 2013, Ladana developed symptom of cough and the symptom alleviated after seeing a doctor at local hospital. She didn’t think she would be associated with cancer for there was no history of cancer in her family.

After three months, she had re-examination and found a lump in left lung by CT, which means lung cancer should be considered. “Local doctors suggested surgery to resect the five centimeter large tumor. Then, control the metastases of right lung and lymph nodes by chemotherapy. But doctor wasn’t sure whether I could live for six months after having these treatments. ” Ladana said.

When she felt so rough, she watched a video about latest treatments technology for cancer at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital at at YouTube by accident. She searched related information and made comparison with treatment technology in US. After consideration, she made her mind to have treatment at Fuda Cancer Hospital, because her life might be save here. 

She sent the results of CT scan and biopsy and other information to the E-mail of Fuda Cancer Hospital to ask treatments. Doctor replied her soon and suggested cryosurgery.

Cryosurgery is a latest technique for treatment of cancer which has been approved by the United States’  Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998 and China’  SDA in 1999. It’s one of characteristic mini-invasive treatments in “CCC+P” cancer treatment mode that created originally by Fuda Cancer Hospital. Cryosurgery is an important ablation technique for tumors. It destroys tumors by cycles of freezing and thawing. Cryosurgery's destructive effects on tumors are due to two major mechanisms, one immediate, the other delayed. The immediate mechanism is the damaging effect of freezing and thawing the cells. The delayed mechanism is the progressive failure of microcirculation; ultimately, vascular stasis becomes operative as an important cause of tumor tissue destruction.

On September 13, Ladana was processing admission at Fuda Cancer Hospital. On September 18, she accepted cryosurgery for left lung and biopsy. And the surgery was successful. Three day later, she could leave hospital and return to her country.

Then, doctor sent e-mail to tell her, the result of gene test showed that she was suited to have targeted therapy and targeted drug could control metastatsis. Doctor told the drug’s name to Ladana. She insisted to take it for three years. During treatment, she paid great attention to diet and kept taking regular exercise. However, she neglected re-examination. Throughout the three year, she never went to hospital for re-examination.

The author asked her, “Why didn’t you go to hospital for re-examination?” Ladana said regretfully, “I thought that targeted drug, healthy diet and regular exercise were enough. It’s not unnecessary to have re-examination because I didn’t feel unwell. Until one day, I got chest congestion and easy fatigue. Therefore, I decided to come back Fuda Cancer Hospital for re-examination. Then the result showed that a tumor which was three centimeter larger than before was in her body.”

The result made Ladana worried and scary. Her mood just likes a shredded paper scattered on the ground, but she couldn’t pick up. She decided to have cryosurgery once again.

Ladana (left 4) and medical workers

Before surgery, doctor explained the risks of it. Because the tumor was close to the helium of the lung and trachea, cryosurgery possibly could cause bleeding, hemoptysis, temporary tracheal obstruction and pulmonary atelectasis. Hearing these complications that may occur, Ladana was worried for several hours, but she still believed Dr. Niu Lizhi’s medical skills. 

In the noon of June 14, she accepted her second cryosurgery. “Before operation, anesthetist gave me a lot of encouragement and let me trust doctor. After operation, doctor sent me to ICU one day for observing condition. During my illness, there were doctors and nurses taking care of me in turn all the time. ” She said.

Three days after operation, Ladana’s indicators of physical examination were normal without complication. Doctor told her she could be discharged from hospital after having a rest for two days.

After being treated at Fuda Cancer Hospital twice, she found that the hospital has not only excellent medical skills but also humanistic care. She said gratefully, “what impressed me most is medical workers’ meticulous care and attention. At the same time, I must express my gratitude to translator and support staff for their high quality service. ”

                                             Ladana and medical workers

Before leaving, Ladana wrote her experience and expression of gratitude to medical workers of Fuda Cancer Hospital on the notebook.

A center for treating tumors & prolonging lives

Cancer is probably the most dreaded disease anyone can have. When I received my invitation to the blessing of the new wing of The Fuda Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou, China, I didn’t think twice about going and seeing for myself what the hospital has to offer particularly for cancer patients. Together with media friends, I boarded a direct flight from Manila to Guangzhou which took two hours and 25 minutes. We arrived in Guangzhou, China late in the evening. The following day, we were welcomed by Manila-based Fuda volunteer Edward Puno and his gracious wife Cindy who took us for a tour around the new wing of the Fuda Cancer Hospital. Upon entering the hospital premises, we were all so impressed with the hospital facilities. We were informed that the Fuda Cancer Hospital had dedicated a whole floor to their Filipino patients. Each room is complete with all the amenities, including a flat screen TV which has an ABS-CBN channel. “This it to make every Filipino patient at Fuda Hospital and their respective families feel at home,” explains Puno. 

I was expecting a gloomy hospital atmosphere but was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a cheerful ambiance which was provided mainly by the elegant interiors and the ever-smiling staff, which is a big plus especially for patients who have nothing to smile about. There was no language barrier problem since the hospital made sure there were coordinators from different countries to specifically attend to the needs of their foreign patients and their families.

Because of the hospital’s high standards, we immediately inquired about the costs of treatments and hospital stay. We were told that regardless of what room patients and their families choose (there are VIP rooms which have a living room, kitchen, and extra bedroom; suite rooms; standard rooms; and rooms for four patients), the total hospital cost remains the same. Once the patient arrives, a proposed treatment plan is given to the patient or a family member. Expect no surprise or additional charges as Fuda doctors do not charge professional fees, which makes the treatment very reasonable and worth every cent.

A money changer, restaurant and coffee shop are conveniently located inside the hospital premises.              

At the helm of this state-of-the-art hospital is chief executive/president Dr. Kecheng Xu, a world-renowned specialist in oncology, gastroenterology, and hepatology. After graduation from Nanton Medical College in 1963, he had his post graduate studies at Fudan University. He was a visiting professor on hepatology and oncology at Chiba University, Japan and took further studies at the Reiter State University, Tulane University, and Johns Hopkins University in the United States. He is the incoming vice president of the International Society of Cryosurgery.

Boasting a very competent team of doctors, Fuda Cancer Hospital has for the last 10 years successfully treated thousands of domestic and international patients. It is the first hospital in China to successfully perform cryosurgery with over 8,000 cases, more than what any other hospital in the world has done. 

Dr. Franco Lugnani, president of the International Society of Cryosurgery based in Italy, has singled out Fuda Cancer Hospital to be the cryotherapy center in the Asia Pacific region for the hospital’s excellent work.

 “Cryosurgery can be done for any part of the body, from head to toe,” says Dr. Lizhi Niu, deputy chief executive of Fuda Cancer Hospital.

Performed mostly under local anesthesia, cryosurgery can be used to treat tumors that could not be removed for early or end-stage cancer. A cryosurgical (CSA) probe is inserted into the tumor and a refrigerant is passed through the probe; the temperature is raised to thaw the frozen tumor. This process is repeated two or three times to complete ablation and thawing of the whole tumor. CSA can be carried out with the help of surgery, endoscope, ultrasound or CT- guided. Percutaneous cryosurgical ablation is a minimally invasive technique with little side effects. It will not cause pain, instead it can stop pain rapidly. CSA is suitable for cancer patients with unresectable tumors or patients that cannot tolerate surgery.

“For those who are beyond surgery or other treatments, cryosurgery aims to extend survival,” he adds.

Dr. Xu explains, “After they have been treated in our hospital, more than 70 percent of these patients experience significant improvement and their survival time has been prolonged, not by months but rather by years. Many patients, including those with liver cancer and lung cancer, have lived for more than five years, with the longest survival time of nine years. Some pancreatic cancer (the “king of cancer”) patients even lived for an additional 55 months.” 

Once a cancer patient comes in, an honest assessment is given as to whether or not the patient can be treated and what he/she can expect. Dr. Mu Feng, president of North District Fuda Hospital, also adds that a routine checkup, particularly a PET CT scan, by a skilled and competent doctor is important.

As there are various approaches to treating cancer, there are also various hospitals in China doing cryosurgery. Thus, one must do an extensive research on which treatment and which hospital can best cater to our sick loved one’s needs. In this age of modern technology, cancer patients, through early detection, do have the chance to survive or, at the very least, extend their lives. The decision is theirs to make.