Spring in Jiangnan is full of flowers. Sunshine, rain and dew sprinkle all over the earth.
But life is not only beautiful. Some people are born covered in mud.
48-year-old Wu Fen (pseudonym) was born in the southwest mountains, and her broken original family made her never feel the love of her parents since she was a child, and she grew up like an orphan. After becoming an adult, he walked out of the mountains to marry Zhejiang, and then welcomed his daughter.
Just when life seemed to be finally on the right track, a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer dealt a fatal blow to the family.
"At that time, I could still have a smiling face in front of my daughter, but my heart was actually broken. I have foreign debts at home, my husband is disabled, and I have this illness again......" When telling the reporter of Chao News Qianjiang Evening News about the 8-year anti-cancer experience, recalling the little warmth encountered in the most difficult time, Wu Fen couldn't help but sob, "If there were not so many well-wishers who tried their best to save my life, I really felt that life was boring, and I didn't expect that I would be able to live until now." ”
When she was diagnosed, her daughter was only in junior high school, and Wu Fen was just 40 years old.
"Come a few hours later and you'll be gone"
Back in 2016, Wu Fen was still working in a local garment factory.
During the factory holiday, Wu Fen asked her sisters from the same factory to go shopping during the day, and went back to take a shower at night, and suddenly she had no strength to go to bed.
The next day, Wu Fen was examined at a local hospital and found that the blood supply to the heart was insufficient.
Wu Fen was still wondering: I don't have heart problems, why can't I have blood supply?
The doctor arranged for Wu Fen to have a lung CT. As soon as the image came out, I saw that the fluid had almost filled the entire lung. Due to the lack of necessary equipment, the doctor advised Wu Fen to be transferred to the local county hospital for treatment as soon as possible.
At this time, Wu Fen had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter.
After being transferred to the hospital, Wu Fen looked at the doctor and a bunch of unfamiliar instruments in front of him, and hesitated: "These things are for me?"
After getting the doctor's affirmative answer, Wu Fen still couldn't believe it, "I just can't breathe, I can't use it, right?"
"If you come a few hours slower, you'll be gone. ”
The situation was urgent, and the doctor immediately performed surgery for Wu Fen to puncture and drain the pleural effusion. As the fluid in the chest cavity was drawn out, Wu Fen's feeling of "out of breath" was relieved.
Next, it's time to find out the cause.
"At that time, I was in the county hospital for 4 days, and when I found out, I said that I had advanced lung cancer. ”
Wu Fen couldn't figure it out: I didn't have any symptoms before, but I felt shoulder and neck pain for half a month recently, isn't it cervical spondylosis? Shouldn't I just get a closed injection? Why did I suddenly become an advanced stage of lung cancer?
She recalled that in 2006, when she was still working in a hardware manufacturing factory, a physical examination in the factory found a little shadow in her lungs. "At that time, the factories used coal to burn molten iron, and the soot was very heavy, and the work content was relatively dangerous. In addition, my daughter needed to accompany her to school, so I wanted to change to a more convenient job, so I went to the garment factory after that. ”
Wu Fen didn't care too much about the "shadow" found out at that time. "If you are not sick or in pain, you have to go to the hospital for examination, I think it is too troublesome," Wu Fen paused, "It's also because of poverty, and it costs another examination fee." ”
Perhaps since then, the root cause has been laid? Wu Fen does not know.
"Go directly to Hangzhou, if you can't get a doctor, you have nothing to say"
As a result of terminal cancer, Wu Fen did not hide from her daughter.
"Because her husband is not highly educated, and her daughter is more computer-savvy, during her hospitalization in the county hospital, her daughter went online to check what was going on with fluid in her chest, and also told her father that it might be lung cancer. As a result, on the fourth day of hospitalization, it was found that it was really lung cancer. ”
Faced with the local doctor's suggestion to "transfer to the city hospital for treatment", Wu Fen hesitated. In the advanced stage of lung cancer, even if I go to the city hospital, it is estimated that it will be empty. Do you just give up? My daughters are not yet adults......
"Mom, don't transfer to our city hospital, just transfer to Hangzhou. I checked, and we went to the Provincial Cancer Hospital. If the experts in Hangzhou also say that the medical treatment is not good, we will have nothing to say. ”
The daughter's words are not unreasonable. After that, accompanied by her husband and mother-in-law, the family set off for Hangzhou.
Leaving the familiar small place and coming to an unfamiliar big city and big hospital, I can't help but stumble.
When I arrived at Zhejiang Provincial Cancer Hospital, it was already Friday evening. "When I asked, I found out that the outpatient clinic was closed on Saturday. ”
If you have cancer, you have to undergo surgery, which is the most simple understanding of Wu Fen's family for lung cancer treatment at that time.
So I waited in Hangzhou until Monday, and hung up the number of surgery early in the morning.
The surgeon watched the film and said, "I can't do the surgery, it's in the advanced stage." ”
Wu Fen's family was stunned, at a loss, and more helpless.
"It's okay, I'll transfer you to internal medicine, it's not just surgery. The doctor was relieved.
In this way, Wu Fen was transferred to the Department of Thoracic Medicine, and it was Chief Physician Lou Guangyuan who treated her.
thought that her life was coming to an end, but what she didn't expect was that the female doctor opposite her, who was a few years older than her, became her sister who was "closer than relatives" and accompanied her through the next 8 years.
"This patient was only 40 years old at the time, which was very young, and I was more impressed. Dr. Lou Guangyuan recalled that at that time, Wu Fen had obvious symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, coughing up blood, and her right lung was not electasis, and the drainage of pleural fluid was no longer clean, and the situation was not optimistic.
At that time, the technology of accurate diagnosis of lung cancer was not widely available, and there were not many hospitals that could carry out genetic testing and molecular pathology classification. And Dr. Lou Guangyuan's first suggestion to Wu Fen was to do genetic testing.
The subsequent test results gave Dr. Lou a huge surprise.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Lou Guangyuan/interviewee
"It's a 'diamond mutation'! There is still hope for enrollment in clinical studies"
After further diagnosis, Wu Fen was diagnosed with stage IV right non-small cell lung cancer with multiple metastases such as pleura and lymph nodes, and positive ALK gene.
Dr. Lou Guangyuan explained that ALK fusion gene mutations are rare mutations with a high degree of malignancy, with an incidence of about 5%-7%. Before there were no targeted drugs, most patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer like Wu Fen could only rely on traditional chemotherapy, and the overall prognosis was extremely poor, with a five-year survival rate of less than 5%.
However, with the advancement of medicine, ALK fusion gene has been found to be one of the important therapeutic targets for non-small cell lung cancer, and the survival of patients has made a qualitative leap.
At that time, the traditional chemotherapy regimen was no longer expected to benefit Wu Fen's condition, and the first-generation targeted drugs for ALK-positive had been marketed in China, and the clinical treatment effect had been confirmed to be significantly better than that of traditional chemotherapy. But the high cost of treatment of the new drug has become a big mountain in front of Wu Fen's family.
Considering Wu Fen's family's practical difficulties, Dr. Lou Guangyuan thought that the hospital was participating in a comparative study of first-generation and second-generation targeted drugs in the treatment of ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer in Asia. If she can be enrolled in this clinical study, it means that Wu Fen can receive free treatment throughout the whole process.
"Some patients say that participating in clinical trials is to be guinea pigs. We don't know what clinical research is, but if we don't take medicine, we can't keep up with the money and nutrition, and we may soon be gone, and maybe there will be a turnaround if we take medicine. ”
Perhaps it was because of the suffering that had befallen so much that the gears of fate began to twist. Wu Fen's conditions met the criteria for subject recruitment, and she was fortunate to be drawn to the second-generation targeted drug group that has not yet been marketed in China, but the sensitivity and safety of the drug have been iteratively upgraded.
Since November 5, 2016, Wu Fen has taken the second-generation targeted drug for the first time, and after taking the drug, the symptoms have been quickly relieved. "The patient's chest tightness and shortness of breath have improved significantly, and the pleural fluid has been gradually absorbed, and no further drainage is needed. The original right total atelectasis was gradually opened. Dr. Lou Guangyuan said.
Today, clinical research is still ongoing, and Wu Fen has also entered the 8th year of fighting lung cancer to living in harmony. Under strict and standardized medication and follow-up, Wu Fen obtained a relatively ideal PR efficacy (partial remission), and the side effects such as constipation and weight gain caused by medication were also controllable.
"At that time, I thought that one more day would be a day, and if I could live until my daughter was in high school, I was gone, and she would be sensible. Later, my daughter was in high school, and I was greedy and wanted to live a few more years, and now my daughter is in college. Wu Fen said gratefully, "I'm really grateful, if I hadn't met such a kind doctor and had such a good policy, I wouldn't have lost it a long time ago." ”
Source: Visual China
In the dark valley, doctors and family became her light
As a doctor in a cancer hospital, dealing with family members and patients all year round, Lou Guangyuan has seen all kinds of tragedies and farces, but when it comes to Wu Fen's family, what impresses Dr. Lou Guangyuan the most is the "kindness" in the foundation. "It is not easy for her to persevere for so many years, not only because of the support of our doctors, but also because of the support of her family. ”
In fact, before officially enrolling in the clinical study, Wu Fen had experienced a dark time.
"At that time, the results of genetic testing were not clear, the hospital could not get medicine, and more than two catties of pleural fluid had to be taken out every day during hospitalization. I was also anxious, and my mother-in-law was so anxious that she cried. ”
Later, Wu Fen learned that her mother-in-law had also "begged" Dr. Lou to find a way to give herself medicine.
"Her mother-in-law told me that the money she used to work as a nanny could be used to give her daughter-in-law medicine. Dr. Lou Guangyuan said movingly, "Although the patient's husband is disabled, he also borrows money and works to support his wife's medical treatment. Although the family conditions are more difficult, the family has a very good relationship and is a very kind family. ”
After formal enrollment, although free treatment was available, the mechanism at that time required patients to pay their own medical expenses and then reimburse.
Because the reimbursement is lagging behind, it will take about a few months, and it was very difficult for Wu Fen to even afford the travel expenses to and from Hangzhou for treatment.
"Several times when I really couldn't come up with the money, Dr. Lou took the money himself or borrowed money to help me pay for the travel and medical expenses, which cost more than 4,000 yuan at a time. Wu Fen is very grateful for Lou Guangyuan's dedication and help, "Maybe for Dr. Lou, I am her patient, but for so many years, I have treated her as a family member, closer than my relatives." ”
"Being able to help such a difficult family, benefit from medications, benefit from clinical trials, and watch their family's life get better and better, is what we doctors want to see the most. According to Dr. Lou Guangyuan, in 2018, in the third year of Wu Fen's clinical trial, the second-generation AKL-targeted drug alectinib used by Wu Fen was officially approved for marketing in China. Although the new drug was expensive when it was first launched, it was included in the national medical insurance in 2019, and the accessibility of the drug has been greatly improved.
At the same time, with the further improvement of the policy mechanism and the medical digital network, Wu Fen no longer needs to pay for treatment-related expenses in advance. "Now I want to be able to pay off my previous debts, my family's health is better, and I can accompany my daughter for a few more years. ”
"In fact, not only targeted drugs, but with the development of medicine, there are more and more choices of various anti-vascular drugs, immunotherapy, etc., which bring huge survival benefits to patients. In 2020, Dr. Lou Guangyuan admitted a 72-year-old patient with advanced small cell lung cancer who had metastasized to the lymph nodes and pancreas when the cancer cells were found.
"Small cell lung cancer is the most malignant type of lung cancer, and in the past, chemotherapy alone was the only way to do it, and the prognosis for patients was very poor, usually with less than a year of survival. At that time, atezolizumab, an immunotherapy drug for PD-L1, had just been launched, and after six cycles of immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy, the tumor lesions basically disappeared. After the drug is discontinued, thanks to the tailing effect of immunotherapy, that is, once it takes effect, it can achieve long-term benefits, and until now, the patient's efficacy has remained close to CR (complete remission), and the survival time is expected to exceed five years or more, and clinical cure can be achieved. This was unthinkable in the past. ”
"It is hoped that greater progress will be made in medicine, and various national and social welfare policies will be more and more perfect, so that more cancer patients will be free from the suffering of diseases. This is the common wish of Wu Fen and Dr. Lou Guangyuan.
Source: Chao News