Some time in September 2004, I received a phone call from Li Taiwei of Shantou, who was suffering from cervical esophageal cancer. He had consulted 7 to 8 hospitals in Guangzhou but they could not help. He asked if our hospital could treat him. I asked him whether he had undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy before. He told me that he did. Biopsy showed that he had leiomyosarcoma which did not response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This was yet another ‘Test’ for us. It seemed that Li had come to the end of the road. “Can we save him?” we asked.
Li was admitted to our hospital. Upon examination, it was found that the tumor was merely 22 cm from the upper esophagus and was about 5 cm long. It was in the area between the esophagus and trachea. Li could not eat cooked rice. For porridge, he would have to swallow it bit by bit. Any slight difficulty in swallowing would easily trigger cough, panting and systemic cyanosis. Compared to his height of 1.78m, he was very thin indeed at 48kg. Li said that he had no proper meal for more than a month.
It was a Saturday afternoon we had an emergency consultation on Li. We left out the option to use conventional therapies as he had undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy before without any significant improvement. We discussed whether we had any other option that might work. The discussion seemed to have come to a stall until Dr. Niu Lizhi suggested cryoablation.
“What? Cryoablation!” I exclaimed in unbelief. “This is about the esophagus, not the liver and lung! Cryoablation has been successfully used for liver cancer, lung cancer and other solid organ tumors. However, there is no report in medical literature on using cryoablation for the treatment of esophageal cancer; what if the ablation causes damage to the linings of the esophageal and trachea? Further more, there are big blood vessels and the heart is just next to the tumor!” I asked. Dr. Niu then gave an analysis on Li’s illness. He found that the tumor grew outward from the wall of the esophagus. If we managed to limit the ablation within the tumor only, it should not cause esophagus or trachea perforation. Dr. Niu is a cardiothoracic surgeon by training. He knows the esophageal and tracheal anatomy very well. I believed his judgments were right.
CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation was performed on the right side followed by the second cryoablation on the left side a week later. There was local swelling after ablation and the patient experienced difficulty in breathing caused by airway compression. A week later, the symptoms subsided. Two weeks later, Li’s swallowing difficulty became less intense. Three weeks later, Li was discharged.
After six months, I received an unexpected phone call from Li telling me that he was in Guangzhou doing merchandize purchases for the company. He wanted to visit Dr. Niu and myself. I was totally surprised and almost uttered the words ‘What! You are still …..’ I quickly invited him to come over for lunch.
When Li came, we gave him CT and barium meal X-ray examination. We found that the tumor had shrunk to a size of 2cm only. The esophagus and trachea were completely clear.
In 2005, CCTV broadcasted an interview with Li on his miraculous healing in their ‘Road to Good Health’ segment of the TV station. Li was then 67 years old. His wife passed away four years ago. He worked in a transport company and was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. He was told by the local hospital that neither surgery nor medication and injection would be effective. Later, he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy to no effect as mentioned earlier. As the tumor was pressing against the trachea, whenever he had a cold, he had breathing difficulties and had to be sent to hospital for emergency treatment. Upon seeing their father’s intense suffering, his children approached the biggest local medical college hospital on the possibility of euthanasia. Li did not want to die. One day he came to Guangzhou by himself. When he was admitted into our hospital, he was accompanied by a friend from Hunan only. When his children, friends and colleagues in Shantou found that Li had disappeared they thought that he must have committed suicide. They looked around in all the hospitals and even went to funeral homes to check the register of deaths. More than a month later, Li suddenly returned. That caused a sensation. Upon seeing Li, a neighbor of his, an old lady, screamed, turned and ran away crying loudly, “Li has come back from death!”
Three years after Li’s return, he married a spinster 15 years younger than he was. He spent and enjoyed his twilight years with his wife. We gave ourselves full marks for this test.