I am often asked what my greatest wish is as a patient. I would blurt out “to live longer.” As the saying goes “a man seldom lives to be seventy years old.” I am over seventy years old, so living longer is a success for me. But I do hope I can still have good quality of life rather than a life full of pain, anxiety and fear. Besides I also believe that with ceasing to work, you cease to live. I have been engaged in my work all my life, if I can’t work any more, being alive would also lose its value.
As a doctor for cancer patients, I hope my patients can live longer and better. If a patient is considered to survive for only a few months, or no more than six months, I hope I can prolong his survival time to one or two years or even longer, with have an improved quality of life. If a treatment would cause serious side effects to patient, then that patient would suffer a second tyranny, which is in my opinion, a failure.
I like to visit patients personally. I have introduced in my book “Nothing But The Truth” that from the 25th of April 2010 to the 3rd of May 2010, I visited patients with colleagues, starting in Jakarta to Daxi in West Java, Bandung, Medan in Sumatra and Surabaya, the second largest city of Indonesia, a journey ofmore than 5000 kilometers. I personally visited eleven patients and interviewed sixteen patients by telephone. Amongst these patients were those that could either not undergo surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, had a cancer recurrence or were diagnosed with a survival rate of less than one year. At present only one patient has passed away the remaining patients are still alive. Of sixteen patients, eleven have survived for five years post-cancer diagnosis. Two patients had survived for 3-5 years and three patients had survived for 2-3 years. Only three patients survived with cancer, the others have all survived free from cancer. According to the latest review this year, most of these patients are still alive and healthy with some cancer-free for eight years.
In May 2012, we followed up 145 patients through visits, telephone, or email, including 37 liver cancer patients, 98 lung cancer patients and 10 pancreatic cancer patients. They all were admitted to Fuda Cancer Hospital for treatments before 2007; they had clear and confirmed diagnosis by histopathology examination; they had not received surgical treatment, or had recurrence after surgery; they were expected not to survive for more than one year on their first diagnoses.
Follow-up results are listed as follows (Table 10): Of the 98 lung cancer patients, 15 patients have survived for 2 years, 7 patients have survived for 5 years (7%), 5 for 6 years, 3 for 7 years and one patient has survived for 10 years. Of the 37 liver cancer patients, 8 have survived for 5 years (22%) and 2 for 10 years. Of the 10 pancreatic cancer patients, 6 have survived for 2 years and one patient has survived for 6 years. Among 145 patients, 37 patients have survived for over 2 years and 16 have survived for 5 years, accounting for 11%.
Some people may consider that only 11% of 145 patients surviving for over five years, which is too small. However, considering that the survival time for these patients would be less than one year before treatment, we can see that these patients are fortunate. In fact, the reports reveal that the fiveyear survival rate of lung cancer is 15% and that of liver cancer is 23%, the survival rate of pancreatic cancer is only 10%. This includes early and mid-term cancer patients.
Some people may say that these patients who have survived for five years were exceptional or lucky. Since those patients who were considered to live not more than a year under palliative care have survived for two, five or even ten years, we have every reason to believe that there will be more advanced cancer patients with a survival prognosis of not more than a few months able to prolong their life for several more years, decades, or even find a cure in the future.
Recently a cancer specialist, Marshall from the United States has published a statement entitled ‘Fighting a Smarter War on Cancer’ he said, “Cancer treatment in the future will depend on personalized medicine,” confidently stating further, “oncologists are optimistic and I am proud that I am also an oncologist, I fully believe that we can cure cancer!”