------Program code: NS-081124-05691 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
11-24-2008 12:13
Yin Zhenyong is 55 years old. His family has been living in Lincheng County for several generations. Besides farming, he runs a small store in the town by himself.
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The small shop does well as he’s now quite well off. One day he suddenly fell while working in his field.
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His family took him home and put him to bed. The next day, his pain still persisted. They decided to take him to the county hospital. They were shocked by his diagnosis. He had 4 of the 5 symptoms for hepatitis, and a shadow was found on his liver, which was most likely a tumor.
His family felt like the sky had fallen. His wife braced herself for the worst and searched for better treatment. She went to hospitals in Beijing and Wuhan looking for other possible treatments for her husband. She decided to take him to the Beijing Cancer Hospital, without telling him how serious his condition was.
Usually, the first option for treating a tumor is surgery. But to remove liver cancer, the tumor can’t be over 6 cm. Yin’s tumor was too big and his right liver lobe would have to be removed. The remaining left lobe had already shrunk and could not make up for the right side. If chemotherapy or radiotherapy was chosen, the dosage would be too high for him to endure. The doctors decided to cut off the blood supply to the tumor, and excise the tumor once it was small enough. The first step was to see which blood vessels were supplying blood to the tumor.
The Angiography showed that nearly all the blood supplied to the right liver lobe was being absorbed by the tumor.
If all the blood vessels supplying the tumor were blocked at once, the sudden decrease in blood to the liver would cause acute liver failure and threaten his life. Professor Yang decided to break the treatment into 3 steps to block the blood vessels and “starve” the tumor to death.
To be safe, the first operation blocked just part of the blood supply to the tumor and normal liver function was maintained. The second and third operations would be carried out when the liver function was sufficiently compensated. Blood supply to the tumor would be completely cut off.
After finding the blood vessel to the tumor, anti-cancer agents were injected into the tumor followed by lipiodol and a gelatin sponge. This blocked blood supply and confined the anti-cancer agents to the tumor to reduce their toxicity in the body. The surgery was finished in 90 minutes.
The size of the tumor shrunk after one month from 13 cm to 10 cm. The number of blood vessels supporting the tumor was also significantly less. This gave the doctors and his family some hope.
Three months later, Yin was reexamined after undergoing three surgeries. The tumor had shrunk to 5.8 cm, and the blood vessels supporting the tumor had all been cut off. No proliferation was observed in the biopsy.
Because he was strong enough to withstand surgery, the remaining cancer was completely removed.
Editor:Yang
