------Program code: NS-090107-06262 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
01-07-2009 14:18
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Ms. Liu Yiying was diagnosed with late-phase lung cancer, and the cancer cells had spread all over her body. Doctors said that she might die within 6 months. Her whole family immediately fell into desperation.
A few days later, her husband took her to Beijing to see doctors.
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As a late-phase lung cancer patient, Ms. Liu had to receive large-dosage chemotherapy. After two courses of chemotherapy, she often vomited and came down with a fever, and she also became extremely weak. She soon lost hope. She wanted to give up and go home to die at home.
At the 307 Hospital of the PLA in Beijing, Dr. Xu Jianming, who once studied at the Italian Cancer Institute, was trying a new therapy for the treatment of lung cancer. It is known as molecular targeted therapy.
After Ms. Liu 's family heard of this, they forced her to go to the 307 Hospital of the PLA to see Dr. Xu, hoping this new therapy could bring her a miracle.
The molecular targeted therapy is a forefront technology for the treatment of tumors. With in-depth study, scientists have now discovered specific targets that decide the incidence, recurrence and transfer of tumors. Designing a tumor treatment scheme targeted at these specific targets is undoubtedly a promising tumor treatment method. This approach chooses specific molecular markers in the cancer cells as the attack targets and then uses drugs that can identify the targets to inhibit the proliferation of the cancer cells so as to treat cancer.
But over 10 years of clinical data show that the molecular targeted drug can accurately identify the attack targets in only 20% to 30% of cancer patients’ bodies. So determining whether Ms. Liu also fell in this category of patients became the key of her next phase of treatment.
Genomic analysis of a tumor is a new idea to screen the attack targets for molecular targeted therapy. It can help doctors develop a treatment scheme. And it can also avoid wastage of medical resources caused by applying the molecular targeted therapy on patients who are unsuitable for this therapy.
Luckily, the analysis results show that Ms. Liu was suitable for this new therapy. But she didn’t feel all that happy about it.
Ms. Liu finally agreed to have the molecular targeted therapy and then took the drugs back to her home in Inner Mongolia. Although she insisted on taking the drugs every day under the request of her family, she didn’t think she could be cured. But a few days later, something surprising happened.
To Ms. Liu’s surprise, the molecular targeted therapy was rapidly effective. This also rekindled her hope of survival. After having taken the drugs at home for one month, she returned to the 307 Hospital of the PLA in Beijing for a checkup. The result surprised everyone.
The unexpected results changed Ms. Liu’s negative attitude to her tumor treatment. In the subsequent two years, she insisted on taking drugs and regularly came to Beijing for checkups. Now she can work and live normally. No one can imagine that she was once on the verge of death.
Editor:Yang
