Some people say that doctors can’t see their own illness, I was this kind of fool. In the early 1970s my mother died of liver cancer, she was a housewife with no medical knowledge and I was a young doctor commencing my medical career. My mother’s liver cancer was at an advanced stage when she was diagnosed and she'd lost out on the chance of surgery. It was less than three months when she passed away. I was so distressed that I made the decision to study the early diagnosis of liver cancer. At that time in China, we lacked contemporary scanning equipment such as ultrasound-guided scanning, CT and MRI. All we had was detection through blood tumor markers. Nowadays, many hospitals still use “GGT 11”, this was invented by myself and my colleague at Nantong University. Using several methods I'd diagnosed many cases of liver cancer. But facing myself, I was a stupid fool and I really can’t forgive myself!
As previously mentioned, in 1998 I’d already discovered that I had an occupying lesion on my liver, but it was always considered to be hemangioma (a benign tumor). I found myself thinking, if there was no PET-CT scan, if I hadn’t accepted this inspection, perhaps the cancer would spread and I would be lost in the world of the dead.
Why the misdiagnosis?
My first mistake was dogmatism. Although I’d had physical examinations for many years, checkups are one thing, knowledge and judgments over these test results are another thing. I was confused by the contrast agents on the CT and MRI scan flowing fast. Actually, we use contrast agents and their flow rate to distinguish between hemangioma and liver cancers. For most cases ~ 80% for example can be identified using this type of method. There are differences and variations in patients with the same cancer. I belong to the minority. Although I'd consulted many experts, they never challenged me. But then so many knew I was a liver disease researcher, since I never suspected I had a serious disease, there was no need for them to contradict.
Secondly, basic body checks were ignored. When considering the GGT II test, which I proudly invented a few decades earlier I now looked down on myself, thinking this was an old test method of little value. In fact recalling these past tests some results had already changed several years ago. My blood CA 19-9 value before surgery was ten units higher than a normal value, but I’d not considered doing this test before.
Thirdly, my understanding of cancer was flawed. I always believed cancer was progressive. To discover the lesion on my liver for several years had not changed in size and there were no new lesions, I eased the “armed ideology.”
In fact, I was not the only expert to misdiagnose their own illness. Two years ago, I was invited to give a consultation for a gastrointestinal expert in Beijing. At that time, he had colon metastasis. I asked him how he could have made such an inferior mistake, he smiled bitterly and said, “Everyday I was busy giving medical advice to patients, I forgot about myself.” The same two years ago, a junior expert in Shanghai invited me to have dinner with him, we discussed my liver cancer and he comforted me by saying, “Take it easy, we're both patients here, I had colon cancer and found out during surgery that it had already metastasized.” I was shocked, he was the current famous gastrointestinal expert in Shanghai, more unbelievable was that his colon cancer was found only when he had emergency surgery for intestinal obstruction, and before this he had no symptoms and no relative checks.
It taught us a lesson. For doctors we cannot afford be too forgetful of ourselves, ignoring our own health. Although patients don't have much medical scientific knowledge, their vigilance compared to ours is stronger. There is a saying in traditional Chinese medical science “Check before illness.” The best method to safeguard oneself would be to ask a doctor to check before there are symptoms, and encourage the doctor to carefully analyze you test results. Often seeking several doctors’ advice is a necessity.