The Godfather of Surgery

Although Fu Xiaotao's mother had an unfriendly expression on her face, Yang Ping didn't care about it at all and didn't spend any extra energy to pay attention to this issue. If it were another doctor, he would definitely focus on the attitude of the family members. If the family members were opposed or distrustful, the treatment would be shelved, unless it was life-saving emergency treatment.

Not long after Yang Ping left the Department of Oncology, a doctor sent Fu Xiaotao an informed consent document for scientific research treatment for him to sign. Of course, when signing, Fu Xiaotao had to argue with his mother because his mother believed that experimental treatment was to treat her son as a guinea pig. If she signed, it was equivalent to selling her son's health to the hospital and to Professor Yang, which was absolutely unacceptable.

His father's opinion was exactly the opposite. He believed that since traditional treatment methods had been confirmed to be ineffective, why couldn't we try new methods? This way, there was at least a glimmer of hope. Fu Xiaotao's disease had not been correctly diagnosed in so many hospitals, but here he was quickly diagnosed through pathological examination. He had every reason to believe in the doctor's strength.

The two-to-one advantage allowed Fu Xiaotao to complete the signing smoothly. In fact, Fu Xiaotao did not disrespect his mother's opinions, but her opinions were often based on biased subjective judgments and were completely irrelevant. She even asked to take Fu Xiaotao to meet a master, but Fu Xiaotao did not go. His mother went alone and spent 60,000 yuan to buy a pillow to cure diseases.

The money was spent and the pillow was bought, but it did not have the desired effect, and he was finally sent to the hospital for life.

At this critical moment of life and death, Fu Xiaotao still had his own ideas. He signed the informed consent form to participate in the experiment and was successfully transferred to the Institute of Surgery. In the Institute of Surgery, Fu Xiaotao drew a lot of blood and conducted some tests that had never been done before. Many of the tests were not routine hospital tests at all, but biochemical tests to study various pathways of the human immune system.

These tests cannot be completed in other hospitals at all, and these hospitals would not even think of doing these tests, because Sanbo Hospital has several strong basic medical laboratories, so it has the strength to conduct such tests.

A few days later, all of Fu Xiaotao's test results came out. Yang Ping went to the laboratory to see the results in person. Tang Shun pulled up the results of the study from the computer: "From these biochemical analyses, the key to the disease should be the mTOR signaling pathway."

Tang Shun is not a clinician. He is good at basic medical research. For a doctor who is proficient in basic medicine, it is obviously very easy to use these tests to find out what the signaling pathway is, because these tasks are commonplace for them. For clinicians, signaling pathway research is a high-tech technology that is rarely involved. Even some clinical medicine that is good at scientific research seriously lacks perfect biochemical knowledge. This is the gap between professions.

Yang Ping carefully analyzed each test result. Everything was so obvious. Indeed, the key to the problem has been found, which is the mTOR signaling pathway. If the mTOR signaling pathway can be blocked, can the disease be cured? In theory, it must be like this.

This bold idea made Yang Ping very excited. He had found a new idea for Castleman's disease. Whether it works or not still needs to be tested in practice.

Tang Shun is now in a dilemma: "But what drug can be used to block the mTOR signaling pathway?"

"Sirolimus for anti-rejection after kidney transplantation!" Song Zimo blurted out, because for clinicians, this is a very familiar drug.

If sirolimus is used to block the mTOR signaling pathway to treat Castleman disease, no approval surgery is required at all, because sirolimus is not a new drug. It should have been in clinical practice for a long time. It is used to block the mTOR signaling pathway in the anti-rejection treatment of kidney transplantation.

"Should we stop chemotherapy and give him sirolimus?" Song Zimo also became excited. No doctor would not be excited at this time.

Yang Ping said decisively: "Stop all chemotherapy, stop hormone treatment, and only use sirolimus for treatment, start immediately."

Without a rich combination of basic medical knowledge and clinical medical knowledge, it is impossible to overturn the recognized pathogenesis model of interleukin 6. It can be seen that in the medical field, it is important to fully master relevant knowledge, because without comprehensive knowledge, doctors will always be trapped in their own professional knowledge cocoon.

The gap between basic medicine and clinical medicine is huge. When clinicians encounter problems in clinical practice, they can only use very limited basic medical research methods, not to mention those high-tech methods. Basic medicine has no idea what specific problems clinical medicine faces. Very few doctors who can cross the two fields can easily make amazing academic achievements. For example, a professor of anesthesiology at West China University of Technology used his knowledge of pharmacology and clinical knowledge to develop a new local anesthetic.

Back in the ward, Yang Ping talked to Fu Xiaotao again. The conversation took place in the meeting room instead of the ward to avoid unnecessary interference.

"We have found a new pathogenesis and new treatment for Castleman's disease. Fortunately, the new drug is actually a mature drug that has been used for many years. It has never been used to treat Castleman's disease, but for anti-rejection reactions after kidney transplantation. Judging from its performance in anti-rejection reactions of kidney transplantation, it should be effective for your disease because it targets the same mechanism." Yang Ping introduced his discovery to Fu Xiaotao.

Song Zimo also added: "We plan to start a new treatment for you as soon as possible, and stop all the previous chemotherapy, hormones, etc."

Although Fu Xiaotao has read a lot of information about Castleman disease, he is still a layman compared to doctors, so he said without hesitation: "Everything will cooperate with your treatment plan. If you need to sign, I can sign at any time."

"Sirolimus!" Fu Xiaotao suddenly remembered something.

"Yes! Sirolimus!" Yang Ping was very sure.

Fu Xiaotao remembered: "I was hospitalized once. The patient in the bed next to me was a patient who had just undergone a kidney transplant. He had been taking sirolimus. I was wondering why he was so familiar with it." It turned out that the life-saving medicine was right next to him, so close to him.

Since Fu Xiaotao cooperated so well, the next treatment was very easy to handle. Everything was carried out according to the new plan. On the same day, Fu Xiaotao stopped using chemotherapy drugs and started taking sirolimus. Time waits for no one, and Fu Xiaotao's condition does not have much time to wait.

There was news from Nandu Medical University that Principal Ding was admitted to the ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 due to illness. Some brain cancers are like this sometimes. When there are no symptoms, they are just like normal people, but once symptoms appear, they will die or be in critical condition.

Principal Ding's matter was a bit sudden. Lu Xiaolu really regarded Principal Ding as his father. When he heard that Principal Ding suddenly fell ill and was admitted to the ICU, he kept waiting outside the ICU, and then kept contacting Yang Ping, asking Yang Ping to help see if Principal Ding could be saved.

Another brainstem tumor!

Yang Ping didn't know how many brainstem tumors he had encountered. Perhaps it was because this type of operation was too difficult and risky, and patients didn't have many doctors to find and not many hospitals to go to, so there was this kind of convergence effect.

This kind of brainstem tumor, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 is definitely not able to treat it. Now, in addition to Sanbo Hospital, only Tiantan Hospital has the strength to perform surgery.

Not long after Lu Xiaolu sent Principal Ding's CT film, Yang Ping received a call from his father-in-law, Professor Su, inviting him to an emergency consultation. The person for the consultation was Principal Ding. I just hung up the phone and received another call from Principal Rao. We were still talking about Principal Ding's condition.

Principal Ding has actually made a lot of contributions to the school and has made great academic achievements. However, he dotes on his daughter too much and helps his son-in-law too much. After knowing his condition, he is still paving the way for his daughter and son-in-law's future.

PS: This case comes from a true story: In the United States, a medical student himself suffered from Castleman's disease. At that time, it was incurable and he was thought to live no more than two years. However, this medical student did not accept his fate. He decided to save himself. So, he invested a lot of energy in studying this disease while suffering from the disease and being in danger of death several times. Through a lot of research, he overturned the pathogenesis of interleukin 6 and believed that the real mechanism was the mTOR signaling pathway. He firmly believed in his judgment, so he stopped chemotherapy and started taking sirolimus. After half a year, a year, and two years, his Castleman's disease was cured and never relapsed. He went from a dying, haggard patient to a spirited and healthy Castleman's disease expert-the world's top expert. This is an inspirational story of self-help that involves perseverance and defiance of authority.