Xu Chuan, deputy chief physician of Sichuan Provincial Cancer Hospital: Immerse yourself in clinical translational research to bring the gospel to patients

Human Resources Daily trainee reporter Chen Peng video trainee reporter Gong Minjun

Character business card

Xu Chuan

Professor of The School of Medicine of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, expert of "Tianfu Emei Plan" in Sichuan, deputy chief physician of Sichuan Cancer Hospital, doctor of medicine, doctoral supervisor. Engaged in comprehensive oncology treatment, individualized and targeted therapy, immunotherapy and other clinical diagnosis and treatment and translational medicine work. Research Scholar, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, USA, visiting scholar, Leon Berard Cancer Hospital/National Cancer Institute of Lyon, France.

Tumor, which is a medical professional name that most people smell, has another name because of its complex etiology and high susceptibility to recurrence and metastasis, limited treatment, and more painful patients. According to medical records, after reaching the advanced stage of tumor patients, they will die due to organ failure, and the survival rate is extremely low. Even under the premise of today's highly developed level of medical technology, we search for the word "tumor" in the website, and the most search results are still "Can the tumor be cured?" "How long can I live after getting a tumor?" and other related issues. Can tumors be cured, and how can we prevent them before they occur? Xu Chuan, deputy chief physician of Sichuan Cancer Hospital, revealed the answer for us.

Tumor immune failure turned out to be "internal rape"

"As long as we find the seed cells of this group of tumors and kill them, we can have a therapeutic effect of cutting grass and removing roots." Xu Chuan introduced to reporters that the current research and development work of himself and his team mainly focuses on traditional tumor recurrence and metastasis, tumor resistance, clinical response and other series of clinical problems, focusing on the mechanism of tumorigenesis and development and the regulatory mechanism of tumor immune microenvironment remodeling. Up to now, the latest research results show that there is a part of the regulatory network formed by dry factors that can maintain the growth of seed cells in tumors, and targeting these dry factors can fundamentally reverse the occurrence and development of tumors and treat drug resistance.

In addition, Xu Chuan's team also made significant discoveries in medical research such as tumor immune escape mechanism and clinical translation. According to him, this research is mainly through the exploration of new molecular biomarkers in the process of immune escape of new tumors, which can provide support for new strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of clinical tumors, and also analyze the root causes of immune escape of tumor stem cells.

Usually, the human immune system is able to find and kill these tumor cells, but the immune cells in the tumor patients do not have the function of recognition and killing, which leads to tumor cells being able to successfully escape the "surveillance" of immune cells. In order to make everyone more understand the tumor immune escape mechanism, Xu Chuan gave a vivid example: this is equivalent to the relationship between the police and the villain, if the villain can always escape the police pursuit, it means that on the one hand, the villain is too cunning, on the other hand, there is "internal rape" in the police team.

Immerse yourself in clinical translational research to bring the gospel to patients

Talking about his work experience, Xu Chuan shook his head and smiled and said bluntly that in the more than two decades of career, day-to-day consultation of patients, clinical operations, translational research, and academic exchanges have become the norm of work. "Sometimes it's healing, sometimes it's helping, it's always comforting" are the words that often hang on his lips. Perhaps, for patients, Xu Chuan is the attending doctor and an excellent medical worker; but for Xu Chuan, every patient's condition is stablely controlled or even cured, which means that he has saved a fresh life from the ghost gate again and again.

In 2018, the father of a good friend unfortunately got lung cancer, the patient refused radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, determined to give up treatment, Xu Chuan insisted that as long as there is a glimmer of hope should not give up, passing on the latest concept of tumor immunotherapy. At that time, the more successful cases of the new drug PD-1\PD-L1 inhibitors in immunotherapy mainly came from Western developed countries, just when friends were preparing to send their fathers abroad for treatment, PD-1\PD-L1 inhibitors were about to be approved for marketing in China, and the patient could be very lucky not to have to go overseas for medical treatment. After a careful assessment of the patient's condition and treatment plan by Dr. Xu Chuan's team, the friend immediately decided to entrust his father, who was supposed to go abroad for treatment, to Xu Chuan, and begged to do his best to cure his father. Finally, Xu Chuan lived up to expectations, and in the patient's treatment plan, the tumor shrank rapidly after using PD-1 inhibitor monotherapy, and successfully controlled the deterioration of the patient's condition.

Nowadays, the immune examination inhibitor PD-1\PD-L1 has been widely used in the treatment of tumor patients, which not only reduces the cost of treatment, but also effectively improves the chance of survival, which has become a gospel for patients in the oncology community.

Retired military doctors dedicate the rest of their lives to the field of oncology

As a retired military doctor with twenty years of experience in the army, Xu Chuan always believes that adhering to the "benevolence" and "original intention" and saving lives and helping the injured is the natural duty of doctors, although he has left the army, the fine tradition in the army and the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly have always inspired him to continue to study and advance in the field of medicine. "The reason why I came to Chengdu in the first place is because in addition to the reputation of 'the country of heavenly capital', the industrious and simple people, there are also very pragmatic policies for the introduction of talents." Xu Chuan recalled that in order to attract a large number of talents to Sichuan to start a business and develop, the Sichuan Provincial Government has specially formulated relevant talent introduction policies and supporting services, which has further strengthened its determination to come to Chengdu for development.

What surprised Xu Chuan was that the Sichuan Cancer Hospital where he worked valued talents, respected talents, and sought talents. Over the years, the hospital has been building a shared platform for academic research for young medical talents at home and abroad, which can not only promote the rapid growth of outstanding students, but also let them feel the sense of belonging given by the hospital. "That's the main reason I'm here to develop." "The occurrence of tumors is not a one-day cause, prevention is more important than treatment, more urgent, we can prepare for it in advance." For how to prevent and control cancer, Xu Chuan put forward some practical suggestions: first, to form a good lifestyle, on time and rest, diet and nutrition balance; secondly, to maintain appropriate exercise; finally, regular early screening of tumors, physical examination, as far as possible to find early tumors, but also have enough time for early treatment, in order to achieve a complete cure in the later stage.