The medical community has taken a giant step forward in the fight against cancer with the revolutionary new gene therapy drug for cancer, named Gendicine. Gendicine is the world’s first approved drug for gene therapy for cancer. It was approved by the State FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of China in 2003. Since then, more than thousand patients from all over the world came to Beijing, to China’s Yanhua Phoenix Hospital and to Haidian Hospital to get the treatment with Gendicine for their cancer.
Dr. Li Dinggang, The head of Phoenix Hospital’s International Cancer Treatment Center is the person behind the success of both hospitals. Dr. Li is a Chinese nationalist who trained at Johns Hopkins University in the US. He has been working together with SiBiono, Gendicine’s development and manufacturing company, since 1997. During that time, Dr. Li was the head of both hospitals' expansive International Cancer Treatment Centres. Dr. Li drew in thousands of patients looking for an alternative cancer treatment through Gene therapy.
Fighting cancer with Gene therapy is an integrative process involving multiple methods of treatment. Gene therapy for cancer has been found to be most effective when it is used together with the traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, and more advanced procedures like hyperthermia and cryotherapy.
The doctors at the Yanhua Phoenix Hospital take it one step further: they take in alternative treatments in the process, especially the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
This new cancer alternative treatment applies some of the basics of Chinese medicine to drop back or eliminate the harmful side effects. These side effects are usually generated by the traditional cancer treatments, primarily chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Acupuncture, massage and herbal medicines have shown to reduce the nausea and vomiting, which are often caused by chemotherapy, as well as the chronic fatigue that can be so crippling to those undergoing any form of treatment for cancer.
Many cancer patients come to China as a last option; funding, public support and government approval of Gene therapy research has been stalling in the West in recent years. On the contrary, China’s federal government has been pouring money into research and development for new cancer treatments since the 1990’s.
Not only government funding makes China ideal for the creation of new cancer-fighting drugs. More than 2 million Chinese are diagnosed with cancer every year - more than anyplace else in the world. With so many people needing treatment, clinical trials are inexpensive, costing about one-tenth the price of similar trials performed in the US.
The results of the trials and succeeding treatments using integrative gene therapy have proven to be more positive for Chinese patients than for foreigners. Dr. Li credits this to the fact that many of his Chinese patients come to him during the early stages of their cancer treatment, whereas most of his international patients look to him as a last option. “The earlier the diagnosis and the treatment, the better the results will be,” he said. “No doubt, cancer patients at the early stage will get better results from the comprehensive treatment.”
