Ms. Xu's Story

On December 27, 2015, Madam Xu, a pancreatic cancer patient from Shanghai was discharged as her condition has improved after received meticulous treatment at FUDA. The daughter of Madam Xu said with great relief, “Seeing that my mom has improved both mentally and physically, I would like to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Niu Lizhi and Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital.”

President Xu visiting Madam Xu

In mid June, 2015, Madam Xu had intermittent dull pain in upper abdomen and aversion to greasy food. On June 30, she had yellowing in whole body skin and in sclera and was hospitalized in a local hospital. The impressions of CT scan were as follows: a space-occupying lesion about 3cmx2cm in size is detected in the neck of pancreas and is found to have invaded lower segment of common bile duct; intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts dilation is detected; an abnormal  enhancing lesion is found in outer right lobe of liver. The attending doctor suggested operation but Madam Xu declined and just took traditional Chinese medicine for anti-cancer treatment. 

In October, Madam Xu had aggravated symptoms, including intermittent abdominal pain, vomiting after food intake, difficult defecation and etc. To seek further treatment, Madam Xu was hospitalized at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital in the company of her family members on November 6.

A photo of Dr. Niu Lizhi and Madam Xu

After she was hospitalized into FUDA, Dr. Niu arranged whole-body examinations for her in no time. After learned that Madam Xu has nutrition risk as she had 15kg of body weight loss since her illness, the attending doctor prescribed nutrition support for her.

To further control tumor progression, the medical team decided to perform NanoKnife therapy for her. On November 10, the NanoKnife therapy medical team headed by Dr. Niu Lizhi performed irreversible electroporation (NanoKnife therapy) under the guidance of B ultrasound for Madam Xu as scheduled, two electron-probes were punctured into the tumor in the neck of pancreas for local ablation. The procedure went smoothly. The volume of bleeding was only 50ml during the procedure.

After the procedure, Madam Xu has had a good recovery. She has resumed her good spirit and appetite to some extent and she has also gained some weight. On December 10, the doctor attending to madam Xu arranged immuntherapy for her in order to boost her own anti-cancer immunity. Seeing that her mother’s condition had significant improvement, Madam Xu’s daughter was greatly relieved. She told the writer that they have came all the way from Shanghai to Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital for NanoKnife therapy. “I learned on the Internet that Fuda Cancer Hospital has successfully carried out the first case of Nanoknife therapy for pancreatic cancer in mainland China”. That’s why I decided to bring my mother to FUDA and have a try. The treatment has delivered good curative effects exactly as we have expected.”

According to statistics, the NanoKnife therapy medial team led by Dr. Niu Lizhi has saved over 60 pancreatic cancer patients from the verge of death. We believe that more and more cancer patients will receive benefit from the latest technology in the future.

TIPS: Seven advantages of NanoKnife therapy

Dr. Niu Lizhi indicated that NanoKnife therapy is a safe and highly effective minimally-invasive technology for tumor treatment. Compared with other tumor treatment method, it has the following advantages:

1. Short ablation duration

For solid tumors about 3 cm in diameter, it requires just 90x100milisecond ultrashort pulses. One group of treatment takes less than one minute. Even if there are 3 to 4 overlapped ablation areas, the whole ablation duration will be less than 5 minutes.

2. Preserving important tissues such as vessels and nerves in ablated areas

Nanoknife therapy can protect important tissue structures in ablated areas. Important liver structures, such as hepatic artery, hepatic vein, portal vein and intrahepatic bile ducts can be well protected after being treated with Nanoknife therapy.

3. No heat island effect

Nanoknife System for tumor ablation uses electrical pulses to breakdown cell membrane. The procedure will neither generate energy nor be influenced by external temperature.
4. Thorough ablation with clear demarcation
IRE can perform thorough ablation to tumor regardless of its site, size and shape even if it’s tumors close to vessels or tumor with irregular shape or big size. Moreover, there is a demarcation between ablated area and non-ablated area; therefore, more precise judgment and evaluation can be made for the follow-up, effectiveness and treatment performance of Nanoknife Therapy. Moreover, NanoKnife therapy can exempt the possibility of tumor recurrence after treatment.

5. Ablated area will remain functional

Different from conventional ablation modes, Nanoknife therapy can promote cell death through immunity stimulation. Human body will identify cell apoptosis as normal cell death and then clean apoptotic tissue through cytophagy so as to promote the regeneration and repair of normal tissue.

6. Real time monitoring during treatment

Nanoknife Therapy can be navigated and monitored by ultrasound, CT or MRI. There is only few millimeters of difference in size between ablated areas monitored by ultrasound or CT and that measured in pathological analysis. The imaging can also clearly display unablated residual cancer cells, to which doctors can perform ablation again. Moreover, real time monitoring allows doctors to observe the changes in the surrounding tissues of ablated area and predict the possibility of complications so as to guarantee patient’s safety and quick postoperative recovery.

7. Nanoknife Therapy can be applied to more complicated conditions

As NanoKnife therapy inflicts no injury to such important tissues. It could deliver safe and effective treatment for the tumor which is close to big vessels, bile duct, pancreatic duct and hepatic portal vein, prostate cancer and cancer close to spine.