For elderly cancer patients, treatment has to be very carefully carried out. For cancer patients who are 75 years old and above, chemotherapy should be avoided. Surgery has to be carried out very cautiously. It is advisable to use therapies that involve very small incision or by minimally invasive therapy. Why does cancer happen more among the elderly? It is because our immune function diminishes with increasing age. Everyday within a human body, some normal cells will mutate and become abnormal or cancer cells. However, our body has immune cells like T lymphocytes and natural killer cells that can kill these bad cells and eradicate them. The immune cells in older persons have decreased both quantitatively and functionally. This give cancer cells the opportunity to flourish. Hence it is very important to strengthen the immune system.
Early 2008, I received a call from an old friend in Hong Kong telling me that her mother had a sudden chest pain and had been admitted into the Luohu Hospital in Shenzhen. It was discovered that there was a large quantity of pleural fluid in her left chest cavity. More than 300 ml of bloody fluid had been extracted. This friend of mine graduated from Rushang Medical School and possessed good medical knowledge. She concluded that her mother had lung cancer. The next day she sent and admitted her mother into our hospital. Her mother was 89 years old, very weak and coughed frequently. She did not have appetite for food. A chest CT was done and it was found that there was pleural effusion in the right chest cavity. There was a 3x4 cm tumor on the right lung with several swollen lymph nodes nearby. Percutaneous biopsy confirmed that it was adenocarcinoma. My friend asked me if I could help so that her mother could have her 90th birthday celebration. I told her it was very difficult and all I could do was to do my best. We had known each others for decades and understood each other very well; we talked very frankly with each other. In a commanding manner she told me, “No matter what, make sure that my mother can have her 90th birthday celebration!”
Since I could not apply chemotherapy, I adopted an immune-based therapy for the old lady. After two weeks of hospitalization, my friend brought her mother back to their apartment unit next to Diwang Building in Shenzhen. She asked two relatives from Fujian to take care of the old lady. I asked one of my students in Shenzhen to give the old lady a dose of immune preparation injection weekly. The old lady got better each day. Two months later, she underwent CT examination in the French Hospital in Hong Kong and no lesions were found. When my friend told the doctor that her mother had had lung cancer before, the arrogant doctor grunted and said scornfully, “The mainland doctor must be wrong!”
It was a great blessing that my friend’s mother celebrated her 90th birthday during the first half of last year. Many relatives from her village came to celebrate with her. During the second half of last year, my wife and I visited the old lady at Shenzhen. We had some cold drinks in Shanghai Restaurant at Futian. She asked for two portions of ice cream. Last week I went to Hong Kong. My friend told me that her mother was both fair and chubby and could eat more than she. “It has been two years now. Thank you for helping me to fulfill my filial duty.” She said.
If an elderly cancer patient has tumors which are locally confined, they should be removed as soon as possible. If the tumors cannot be resected completely, efforts must be made to remove part of them, if not most part of them. This is because when the cancer load is reduced, the immune pressure in our body will reduced and this is beneficial to immunotherapy. However, most of the time surgery cannot be performed and in this case minimally invasive cryosurgical ablation is applicable.