Hua Tuo - One of the earliest Chinese doctor who help define Chinese medicine as it is today

Gene Therapy Cure for Cancer in China

Traditionally, treatment for the deadly cancer has always revolved around chemotherapy and radiation. With such treatment, the success rate is high for those diagnozed with early cancer but the success rate can be dismal for those with mid or late stage cancer.

Gene therapy treatment for cancer has been making news lately for it's superior result in treating cancer... but not without some controversy. Read on how China is making headway in gene therapy for the treatment of cancer tumors...

Successful gene therapy for cancer patients

We often get readers' emails on our Chinese culture website. Most of the emails were usual enquiries about Chinese culture, travel in China or Chinese traditions. Recently, we recieved a very different email from a reader in Norway. This is part of his email:

" I am looking for cancer hospitals in China which provide treatment with the drug Gendicine (or other new and approved drugs which are unavailable in the west). Do you have any information that could help me in my search?"

Apparently, this reader has been seeking high and low on the internet regarding gene therapy cancer treatment in China for a long, long time. His mother has cancer and he was anxious to seek the best medical help for her.

As it was an enquiry of humanitarian interest, we decided to help.

We searched the internet about gene therapy cancer treatment in China and was able to get many references immediately, especially about a Dr Li Dinggang of Haidian Hospital in Beijing, China. We translated his name into Chinese and then did a internet search in Chinese again and was able to find out his contact details from his hospital's Chinese website.

During our search process, we realized that Dr Li has become almost a legend for his miraculous gene therapy treatment for cancer. Not only were there many local Chinese who seek him out but also many Western patients who found out about him through other Western patients who have recieved successful treatment from him and had highly recommended him.

Here are some extracts from Businessweek...

"... Dr. Li Dinggang, the 50-year-old director of the Gene Therapy Center, is an oncologist who spent five years as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the 1990s. Since 1997, he has worked closely with Dr. Peng Zhaohui, the chairman and chief executive of SiBiono, seeking to make China a leader in the field of gene therapy [for treatment of cancer]."

"...Gendicine itself combines a gene named p53, which suppresses tumor formation, with a modified common virus. When the product is injected into a [cancer] tumor, the virus carries the gene into cancer cells. The gene then prompts the tumor cells to commit suicide."

Chinese-culture would like to help!

We contacted a Chinese friend in China, who in turn help us contact Dr Li on the phone at the hospital. Despite it being a Sunday, Dr Li was kind enough to reply our phone call immediately.

Dr Li has this advice for our Norwegian reader:

1. To send to Dr Li his mother's medical case history in English

2. Dr Li will then advize if his mother should seek admission to his hospital

We immediately inform our Norwegian reader Dr Li's reply and he is now seeking translation of his mother's case history.

During our research on the internet, we also came across many medical discussion forums, where many readers were seeking for information on how to contact Dr Li or to seek admission to Dr Li's hospital. Many readers were desperate as their loved ones were crtitically ill despite seeking many other forms of medical treatment for cancer. They had heard of Dr Li and his successful gene therapy cancer treatment in Beijing, China but were unable to advance further as there were little or no information on how to contact Dr Li or his hospital. If there were any information in print or on the internet, it was mostly in Chinese.

Sensing their despair and anxiety, we posted our availability to help them contact Dr Li or the hospital in one of these forums. In two days, we recieved more than 10 enquiries!

How you can help yourself

It was not easy answering so many enquiries. Hence, this website was set up as a general answer centre. On this website, you can:

1. Learn more about gene therapy in cancer treatment

2. Get to know Dr Li and his pioneering work in gene therapy for cancer treatment

3. Learn how to seek admission to Dr Li's Haidian Hospital in Beijing, China. (Please check top right portion of this website)

Do you need further help?

Some readers has feed-back to us that contacting Dr Li or the hospital was a bit difficult because of the language difficulties.

Some readers were also worried about transport, accomodation and other difficulties if they were to go to Beijing, China for gene therapy treatment as such treatment may take up to two months or even more.

Let us know and we'll see how we can help.

We have some Chinese friends in Beijing, China who can also help with hospital admission, short term accomodation and transportation issues. Again let us know and we'll seek their help in turn.