Reprinted from Sina News

Cancer treatment costs are expensive, ranging from 100,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan. Therefore, cancer patients have always been the "fat meat" that major hospitals compete to compete for. Even departments within the hospital have launched a fight to grab cancer patients. The purpose is only one, that is, to make money.

‘After the surgery department makes money, the patient is transferred to the chemotherapy department and chemotherapy department and then to the radiotherapy department. When all the money in these departments has made enough money, the patient is thrown into the traditional Chinese medicine department. ‘At a cancer forum held recently in Guangzhou, senior tumor experts, including Luo Rongcheng, deputy director of Southern Hospital, publicly bombarded some hospitals to make money from cancer patients, and they use all kinds of bad methods.

A doctor also reported to the reporter: In order to first admit a patient who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, a hospital in Guangzhou actually hinted that the patient had made fakes and faked gastric cancer and was admitted to the gastrointestinal department! What's more, a patient died of improper chemotherapy during chemotherapy.

Although it is impossible to use a specific number to illustrate the situation of irregular treatment, insiders said that this problem is common in various parts of my country. The heads of many famous hospitals in Guangzhou said in an interview with our reporter that the fundamental reason for the irregular treatment of cancer is that my country has not yet formulated cancer treatment standards.

The treatment process of breast cancer patient Xiao Weizhen (pseudonym) in the past six months directly confirms how important and popular cancer patients are for the hospital. At the same time, it has also been revealed, and the chaos of snatching patients between departments of the hospital.

Breast cancer patients are admitted to the digestive department

In April this year, Xiao Weizhen, who lives in Dongguan, was diagnosed with breast cancer in a local hospital. After the operation in a local hospital, a relative of Xiao Weizhen who worked in the gastrointestinal department of a famous tertiary hospital in Guangzhou learned about the news and immediately rushed to Dongguan to persuade Xiao Weizhen to go to the hospital where she works for chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Specifically, it was to go to the gastrointestinal department of this tertiary hospital for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

It is a bit unrelated to pulling a breast cancer patient to the gastrointestinal department for chemotherapy. If the hospital leadership discovers, it is very likely that the patient will be ordered to be transferred to the thoracic surgery and other related departments, so that the gastrointestinal department will have no money to make.

In this case, Xiao Weizhen's relative helped her come up with a way to secretly cross Chen Cang, allowing Xiao Weizhen to enter the gastroenterology department under the name of gastrointestinal cancer.

After the first chemotherapy operation in the gastroenterology department, Xiao Weizhen was immediately found to have symptoms of renal insufficiency and reduced urination. Seeing that the situation was urgent, the gastroenterology department reported the truth about Xiao Weizhen's treatment to the hospital. Xiao Weizhen was immediately transferred to the thoracic surgery department.

‘We asked the doctors in the gastroenterology department to know what the cancer molecular attributes they gave Xiao Weizhen and what chemotherapy regimen were used, but the doctors in the gastroenterology department were not aware of it after asking. ‘The thoracic surgeon at the hospital interviewed by the reporter revealed that the doctors in the gastroenterology department were very angry and said that it was not chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which doctor would not do it?

Improper chemotherapy kills patients

'Treatment of cancer is not as simple as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Breast cancer patients like Xiao Weizhen must first analyze their pathology before they can determine which chemotherapy plan to choose. If it is suitable for ordinary chemotherapy, the cost of each chemotherapy is about 5,000 yuan; if it is special mutant breast cancer, the cost of each chemotherapy will be tens of thousands of yuan.'

Professor Luo Rongcheng, a doctoral supervisor at Southern Medical University, vice president of Southern Hospital, and also chairman of the Guangzhou Anti-Cancer Association, said in an interview with our reporter that in some comprehensive hospitals, hepatobiliary tumors can be treated in internal medicine or surgical treatment. How can the word "chaotic" be so good?

‘The five departments of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Internal Medicine, Thoracic Surgery, Chemotherapy and Biological Treatment can all admit lung cancer patients. Because each department has its own interests, the hospital has assigned tasks to each department. If there are more patients in the department and more money, the more bonuses they earn. ‘Luo Rongcheng said, ‘If certain treatments can be done or not, the doctor will of course choose to do it; if there are several methods to choose to do it, of course, choose your own method.’

Doctors from any department can cure cancer, so irregular treatment will inevitably occur. One patient even died of improper chemotherapy during chemotherapy.

The intestinal cancer patient was clearly suffering from renal insufficiency during surgery in a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou, so he begged the doctor: "I will die if I continue chemotherapy." However, because the doctor was unaware of the symptoms after chemotherapy, he still insisted on continuing chemotherapy. Later, the patient died of renal failure during chemotherapy. Seeing this, the surgeon was puzzled: "How can a tumor patient die if he says he dies?"

‘This is a typical irregular treatment that is not aware of and the doctors are not aware of.’ Luo Rongcheng said that because there is no relevant professional technology, the doctors have not realized what went wrong when the patient dies. ‘Every department treats cancer patients, but most doctors have not received professional training.’

Overtreatment is common

Why are the departments of the hospital so keen on treating cancer patients? Luo Rongcheng pointed out the reason: cancer treatment is very profitable.

‘According to conventional practice, the treatment of a cancer patient includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biological therapy and endocrine therapy. After the treatment, the patient spends at least 100,000 yuan, and at most 100,000 yuan.’ Luo Rongcheng said that with the influence of environmental factors, the proportion of cancer patients has remained high. Currently, tumor patients in various comprehensive hospitals in Guangzhou generally account for 1/5 to 1/4 of hospitalized patients.

‘Generally, the cost of chemotherapy can be greatly loose, either 5,000 yuan or 20,000 yuan, which depends on the patient’s financial affordability. ‘Driven by interests, many doctors will persuade patients to use more expensive chemotherapy drugs. ‘Originally, only 6 chemotherapy sessions are needed, but doctors often do 8 or more.’

Luo Rongcheng bluntly stated that too many chemotherapy times are overt treatment. ‘The effect of 4, 6, 8 chemotherapy has been compared abroad, and it was found that the effect of 4 times is the same as 8 times. As for the actual treatment, it is difficult to say how many chemotherapy should be appropriate during the actual treatment process, but administrative medicine has a standard. Generally speaking, auxiliary treatment after surgery is 4 to 6 cycles.’

‘Generally speaking, doctors adopt first-line chemotherapy regimen for 2 to 3 cycles. If the effect is good, they can continue to use 6 cycles. If the first-line treatment plan does not work, a 2-line plan can be used; if the first-line plan does not work, according to the practices of some domestic hospitals, they will continue to use 3-line, 4-line or 5-line chemotherapy regimens - this is actually overtreatment, which is very common in Guangzhou.’ Luo Rongcheng said that according to international practices, when the 3-line treatment plan is reached, clinical trials have actually been added. The United States is free, and it is completely a try-out mentality.’ But among cancer patients transferred to Southern Hospitals, patients who have undergone chemotherapy plans above 3-line are often seen.

Jiang Wenqi, deputy director and doctoral supervisor of Sun Yat-sen University Affiliated Cancer Hospital, said that the hospital also often treats cancer patients who have been overtreated from other places.

Luo Rongcheng revealed that cancer patients now have proton knife, photon knife, R knife and neutron knife. These knives and the halo of advanced technology mislead patients, "If the lesions are widespread, or they are already in the late stage, it will be useless for any knife radiotherapy to be used." But some hospitals do not care about these, and some doctors will also encourage patients to use these bloodless "knife". At present, there is a proton knife in some places in North China. Some people told some doctors in Guangdong who treat tumors that if a patient is introduced to Shandong for proton knife radiotherapy, the introduction fee will be 40,000 yuan.

Why can all departments of the hospital treat patients? Their reason is: There is no provision yet that a certain cancer patient must go to a certain department for treatment. In other words, for a cancer patient, the opportunity for each department to receive a doctor is fair, and there is no business to steal anyone.

Professor Jiang Wenqi sighed that since the country does not have relevant regulations, it has also led to chaos in the cancer treatment market. "There are many reasons for overtreatment, which are influenced by the management system and economic interests; there are unknowns and limitations in the understanding of tumors; there are strong demands from patients, etc.

‘In the United States, tumor treatment is fully implemented with reference to the oncology treatment guidelines formulated by the National Alliance of Comprehensive Cancer Treatment Centers (NCCA). So far, China has no standard oncology treatment guidelines.’ Jiang Wenqi said, ‘This has formed the worst situation. Any department in any hospital in China can treat tumor patients and any professional doctor can perform chemoradiotherapy.’

Establishing a specialized disease treatment system is difficult

Regarding the measures to cure the root cause of the cancer treatment market, Luo Rongcheng believes: "I think the hospital is not about the size, but whether the specialized disease treatment system is considered. "Luo Rongcheng said, "Although the specialized disease and technical system can avoid irregular cancer treatment, it is difficult to establish it. At present, there are almost no specialized hospitals in Guangzhou's comprehensive hospitals."

‘The so-called specialized diseases, specialized and technical specialized departments are actually the setting model of hospitals in developed Western countries. They set up hospital departments according to different types of diseases, such as setting up breast departments, enteric departments and rhinitis departments, etc. Each department has one-stop doctor services such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biological treatment and endocrine. After patients enter this department, they can complete the entire treatment without transferring to other departments for treatment.’ Luo Rongcheng said that the current hospital departments in China are classified according to surgery, internal medicine, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Luo Rongcheng revealed that under his leadership, the internal medicine department of the Southern Hospital had carried out a specialized and specialized system similar to that of Western hospitals, dividing the internal medicine into 10 groups, each group was responsible for a type of cancer. "It is very difficult because it involves disrupting the entire hospital department setting and starting over."

At present, similar departments have begun to be launched in some large hospitals in Guangzhou. Jiang Wenqi revealed that Guangdong is the most common area in the country with rhinitis cancer. The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University has set up the first department in Guangdong Province named after a single cancer - the Rhinitis Cancer Department.

What is the effect of specialized diseases and treatment? Luo Rongcheng said there is a ready-made example: "Now when it comes to treating lung cancer in the country, Beijing will look for Zhi Xiuyi, Shanghai will look for Liao Meiling, Sichuan will look for Zhou Qinghua, Guangdong will look for Wu Yilong."

Reporter's observation

Life is endless, chemotherapy continues?

‘Life is endless, chemotherapy continues’, this is a portrayal of the lives of most cancer patients. They think that as long as the doctors are still giving themselves chemotherapy and radiotherapy, their lives will continue. However, they do not know that there is also a fatal over-treatment.

Sometimes people have worked hard to perform multiple drugs combined with chemotherapy, ultra-large doses of radiotherapy, expanded radical cure, and ultra-radical surgery, but these excessive treatments did not get the expected rewards, but on the contrary they brought serious consequences: the surgery caused the patient to lose the organs and functions that could have been retained; high doses of chemotherapy drugs not only failed to reduce the tumor, but instead made the patient more painful and weak due to high side reactions, and even lost his life prematurely; excessive high doses of radiotherapy will cause irreversible damage to the normal tissue around the tumor.

There is no doubt that an important reason for overtreatment is "disease-oriented" rather than "people-oriented". For some doctors, when treating cancer patients, they are often limited to their major, and they choose the most familiar treatment method first, and only consider other methods after failure. This not only increases the economic burden on the patient, but also delays the best treatment opportunity. For patients, they lack scientific knowledge and blindly pursue "curing" tumors, requiring high-intensity radiotherapy and chemotherapy that exceeds the standard, and have timely experienced serious toxic side effects and gritted their teeth to persist, but the result is that they shorten their survival time and sacrifice quality of life.

Any department in any hospital in China can treat tumor patients, and any professional doctor can perform radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The reason behind this phenomenon is that so far, China has not had a standard tumor treatment guide. In the United States, tumor treatment is fully implemented with reference to the tumor treatment guidelines formulated by the National Alliance of Comprehensive Cancer Treatment Centers (NCCA).

At present, the Ministry of Health, the Chinese Medical Association and the China Anti-Cancer Association are joining forces to organize experts to formulate standardized treatment plans for nine common cancer diseases, including colorectal cancer.
Chapter completed!