Doctors at Shanghai Chest Hospital say a therapy that combines chemotherapy with a stem-cell transplant has prolonged the lives of more than 30 of their lung-cancer patients since the therapy was introduced in June 1997.
The hospital is the nation's first to use the therapy, they said.
Patients in the late stages of lung cancer usually live for only three more months, medical specialists said. If they get chemotherapy, they can live as long as a year.
Shanghai Chest Hospital doctors said all of their patients who have undergone the new treatment are still alive, including one who is still living nearly four years later.
Dr. Yan Sheke of Shanghai No.1 Hospital said, "Western countries have used such treatments for years and have had good results."
Dr. Liao Meilin, chief of the chest department at Shanghai Chest Hospital, said the transplant blunts the side effects of chemotherapy, which, while effective in controlling tumors and the spread of cancerous cells, also devastates the patient's immune system.
"So many patients die as a result of their weakened immune system," Liao said.
To limit the side effects of chemotherapy, the stem-cell transplant is used, she said.
It involves the extraction of stem cells from the patient's blood and having the blood go through a separation apparatus.
A day later, the stem cells are injected back into the patient to help restore his or her immune system, which the next day will be under "attack" by the chemotherapy treatment, Liao said.
Before receiving the transplant, patients must undergo chemotherapy once or twice for doctors to learn if the procedure will be helpful. Then a detailed examination is conducted.
(Eastday.com 03/27/2001)
