政府新闻
上海医生以创新理论惊艳国际同行 2024-10-13
A local medical expert has wowed his international counterparts with an innovative theory and practice on lung cancer surgery, which changes the traditional approach to reduce surgical damage and retain patients' organs and functions to the largest extent for longer survival and better quality of life.
"My major focus is to keep the healthy lymph nodes during surgery," said Dr Chen Haiquan, director of the thoracic surgery department at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, in a report during "The David J. Sugarbaker, M.D. Lectureship in Thoracic Surgery" at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States earlier this month.
"Under traditional practice, doctors usually remove all the lymph nodes to prevent cancer spreading no matter whether the nodes are healthy or not."
Dr Chen Haiquan from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center introduces his innovative theory for lung cancer surgery.
Lymph node dissection is considered a necessary procedure for lung cancer surgery and in routine practice, systematic lymph node dissection is mostly adhered to, aiming to remove the lymph nodes with cancer metastasis or potential metastasis as comprehensively as possible to minimize the possibility of recurrence. However, large-scale lymph node dissection also removes lymph nodes without cancer, prolongs the operation time, increases the surgical trauma of patients, and destroys the body's immunity.
"The lymphatic system is an important immune barrier of the human body, and the lymph nodes work like the 'police' in the immune barrier," Chen said. "We started to think about whether lymph nodes still need to be removed if there is no metastasis.
Chen led his team investigate selective lymph node dissection by accurate judgment of lymph node metastasis before and during surgery, in appropriate conditions.
"Based on the retrospective study, six judgment conditions were set, and a prospective study was designed based on this. According to this criterion, the clinical accuracy of the diagnosis of negative lymph nodes has reached 100 percent. It is considered a 'milestone improvement' by our international counterparts," Chen said.
This is the second time that Chen has been invited to give a lecture at the prestigious US hospital, following his invitation to be the "Gerald and Elaine Schuster Distinguished Chair Visiting Professor" in 2021.
The hospital is the main medical facility affiliated with Harvard University. With an academic tradition of more than 30 years in its department of thoracic surgery, the "Gerald and Elaine Schuster Distinguished Lecturer Forum in Thoracic Surgery" and the "Sugarbaker Chair Visiting Professor in Thoracic Surgery" each invite only one influential "big name" in the field of thoracic surgery to give two academic reports to doctors at the hospital each year, and to participate in clinical and scientific research teaching.
Chen is the first scholar in the world to be invited to give lectures to both forums.
Dr Chen Haiquan is the first scholar in the world to be invited to give lectures by "Gerald and Elaine Schuster Distinguished Lecturer Forum in Thoracic Surgery" and the "Sugarbaker Chair Visiting Professor in Thoracic Surgery."
Source: Shanghai Daily
