March 2008, we were invited by Dr. Franco, President of the International Cryosurgery Society to give talks and perform cryoablation in Spain and Italy. I got to know Dr. Franco more closely after I had invited him to write the preface of the book “Cryosurgery For Cancer” which was co-authored by Dr. Niu Lizhi and me. He wrote a highly inspirational preface after he had read through the draft carefully. I first met Dr. Franco during the 14th World International Cryosurgery Congress in Beijing in October 2007. It was understood that during his speech at the congress, he strongly recommended Fuda Cancer Hospital. Our paper for the congress “Summary on 3000 Cases of Cancer Treatment by Cryosurgery” was the first paper discussed in the Congress. During the Congress I presented our book “Cryosurgery for Cancer” to Dr. Franco. He was very happy and had a group photograph with me and Dr. Niu Lizhi. During the Congress, Dr. Franco also presented the Cryosurgery Special Contribution Award to Dr. Niu Lizhi and me during the Congress. Our meeting in Indonesia further strengthened our friendship. Less than 10 days after our Indonesia trip, we received Dr. Franco’s invitation to Europe.
During our flight from Hong Kong to Rome, both Dr. Niu Lizhi and I were feeling uneasy as we knew that this visit was yet another ‘Test’ that we had to go through. Dr. Franco would like us to lecture and to demonstrate treatment of lung cancer using cryosurgery. Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the West. The conventional treatment for lung cancer is by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In recent years, the United Kingdom has begun to use bronchoscopy-assisted cryoablation and thoracotomy cryotherapy to treat lung cancer. The use of percutaneous cryoablation for small peripheral lung cancer has been reported in Japan only. At Fuda we started to use percutaneous cryoablation for lung cancer in 2003.From 2005 onward we apply percutaneous cryoablation for the treatment of central lung cancer. We were uncertain whether percutaneous cryoablation treatment for lung cancer would be acceptable and accredited by Western scholars who, at times, could be quite critical.
We went to Rome first followed by the Island City of Pulma in Spain, and preceded to Malaga at the southernmost tip facing Africa with a sea in between. From Malaga, we went to Madrid then to Venice and to the Northern city of Trieste, Italy where the headquarters of International Cryosurgery Society is. At each place we visited, we met with the local medical specialists, gave talks, paid visits and participated in surgery. Dr. Franco accompanied us all the way. A professor of thoracic surgery from the University of Milan was travelling with us, too.
There was not much discussion on our presentation on cryoablation for the treatment of liver and pancreatic cancer; the focus was on the strengths of cryosurgery by thoracotomy and minimally invasive percutaneous cryoablation. The professor from Milan University showed the video recordings of cryoablation by thoracotomy of five patients. Cryo-probes were inserted under direct vision after thoracotomy with two cycles of freezing process. From the video clips, I noticed that due to continuous expansion and contraction of lungs, it was difficult to distinguish between tumors and normal tissues or inflammation.
During Dr. Niu Lizhi’s presentation, he showed the video recordings and slides on percutaneous cryoablation. The CT films on three central lung cancer patients attracted the attention of all present during the presentation. The first patient’s tumor was in the area between the main pulmonary artery and the aorta. The second patient’s tumor was to the left of trachea, about 5cm in size, pressing against the trachea. The tumor of the third patient was 7cm in size. It was immediately next to the right main bronchus. There was another tumor of 3cm at the upper right lung. All the specialists present gave their comments and agreed that it was very difficult to remove the tumors by surgery. Later, Dr. Niu showed the post-percutaneous cryoablation slides to the amazement of all the specialists. All of them agreed that to perform cryoablation at these highly difficult areas required one who was very experienced and skillful. One expert from Spain congratulated Dr. Niu and commented that these CT images were absolutely fabulous and unique and was probably the only ones in the world.
In Tieste, Italy, an observer, who was a chemical engineer by profession, produced CT images of his mother, a seventy-nine years old woman. The old woman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three months ago and was discovered with liver metastasis one month ago. He decided on the spot to send his mother for treatment in our hospital. Half a month later, he and his sister accompanied their mother to Guangzhou. After a month of treatment, her condition stabilized and she returned to Italy. She is our first Italian patient.