On October 22, 2014, the Malaysian patient VOO KEN YIN had some special visitors. They were journalists of the media delegation from Malaysia who wanted to know his curative effects. The couple was glad to accept their interview.

VOO KEN YIN is 54 year old and had been working as an auto mechanic before. In 2006, he found a lot of strange white spots on his tongue, so he went to the local hospital. The examination result showed that was lingual well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, by which Voo was shell-shocked. Nevertheless, he knew that only accepting treatments positively could he recover soon and continue the work he loved. Accompanied by his family, he went to Singapore and underwent 4 resection surgeries there. He regained normal life though the treatment cost was high. However, the tumor reoccurred 3 years later. The deteriorated condition caused continuous tongue pain so that he couldn’t speak normally. Communication barriers upset him, and his family was also very worried about him as the disease depressed him.

VOO KEN YIN was accidentally informed the Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou by his classmate who had suffered from prostate cancer. Encouraged by his friends, and carrying with medical report, he and his wife left Sabah for the office of Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou in Kuala Lumper. Then they came to Guangzhou soon with the assistance of staff there. On being admitted to hospital, he took a comprehensive physical examination of which the PET/CT result showed there was a 3*3cm fixed hard lump with tender pain on the right side of tongue. It was the lump that made him difficult in speaking normally.  

After joint consultation, the MDT experts of Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou made a treatment plan that included interventional chemotherapy and particle implantation for VOO KEN YIN. On October 2^nd, VOO underwent the first interventional therapy. One week later, he underwent the particle therapy and the doctor implanted 40 radioactive seeds in his tongue tumor. On October 11^th, he said his condition improved a lot and wanted to go back home. Then he was discharged, but required to come back for check in 10 days.

After VOO KEN YIN’s narration, journalists interviewed his attending doctor Lin Jing. She said, “he was seriously ill on admission. The most evident symptoms were consistent pain and little mobility of the tongue. After interventional therapies, those symptoms have disappeared and there was no difficult for him to speak. Now his mental condition and appetites have been greatly improved. ” His wife also said that he spoke little and had no appetite when admitted because of pain and inflammation of the tongue, but the condition was very well in the recent check.

Then journalists learned about the minimally invasive therapy. “The greatest advantages of minimally invasive therapy for cancer are small wounds, quick curative effects and little side effects. The chemotherapeutical drugs can be infused into the tumor with special catheter through a 2mm incision under the guidance of digitized imaging equipment, which cut off the blood supply for the tumor tissues so as to kill cancer cells quickly and accurately. The drug concentration of the local infusion is 2 to 8 times higher than that of traditional intravenous fluid therapy. This therapy produces little side effects and minimizes the risk of surgery for patients,” said Doctor Lin, “interventional chemotherapy will still be used to improve his condition because of the good curative effects before. Besides, we will adjust the treatment plan according to his individual conditions.”

VOO KEN YIN was relaxed looking and smiled now and then during the interview, giving little clue that he was too painful to speak one month ago. When Mr. Wang, the journalist of Public Health Newspaper considerately asked him whether he needed a rest, he shook his head and answered that he wasn’t tired.” Then he gave more details with smile, “doctors in Singapore always advised me to undergo surgeries. I have already undergone 4 surgeries, and I’m afraid that I cannot speak after more surgeries. I feel well here. My condition has been greatly improved, and now I don’t feel tired when speaking. The minimally invasive therapies bring me hope!”

VOO KEN YIN is interviewed by journalists from the Public Health Newspaper

*Surgery, in addition to the appropriate chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are effective in treating early cancer, but certain patients in late stage of cancer may not be tolerate surgery well as they can be relatively weak. A combination of carefully planned minimally invasive therapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy can effectively reduce the side effects and discomfort of treatment and may help patient get better efficacy.