Trust the doctor. Thank you for the
support of family.
CARGULLO JEAN BUENA
is a teacher from the Philippines. She loves her job and is passionate in her
dream of sharing knowledge to the youth, the hope of the country. She was going
on with her daily routine when in 2008, she found out that there was a
thumb-sized lump in her right breast. During that time, she did not feel any
discomfort so she did not seek any medical treatment. Until in 2012, when she
underwent a regular check-up and found that the lump grew as large as a fist.
After taking biopsy in 2013, she was diagnosed with breast
cancer. The news surprised JEAN because she did not experience any
symptoms or pain. The local doctor advised her to undergo surgery to remove the
whole breast but she wanted to save her breast so she refused. Thus, her
husband looked for other treatment options for JEAN.
JEAN’s husband said,
“In the Philippines, the common treatments for breast cancer are surgery,
radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Coincidently, I learned about Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou so I was given a glimmer of hope thus I read more about the cancer treatments at Modern Cancer
Hospital Guangzhou. I learned about the many cancer treatment options
available, such ascryotherapy, interventional therapy and other new therapies which are suitable for my wife because
these treatments are minimally invasive, bring smaller trauma, and has lesser
side effects. Thus, I suggested to my wife to take treatment here.”
JEAN learned that in minimally invasive treatment, there is no need
for open surgery but it still yields the same effect so she decided to give it
a try. In May 2013, she took the first treatment atModern Cancer
Hospital Guangzhou. The multi-disciplinary team of doctors diagnosed her as soon
as possible and the result showed that it was already stage 4, with metastasis
of the lymph and of the left breast. Hearing the result made JEAN more worried.
With the encouragement of her husband, she underwent the first interventional
therapy. Interventional therapy is done under the guidance of medical imaging
equipment wherein the anti-cancer drugs are injected directly to the blood
supplying artery of the tumor which effectively shrinks the tumor. Compared
with the traditional chemotherapy, interventional therapy targets the tumor
precisely and brings lesser side effects to the body; the drug concentration of
anticancer drug inside the tumor is much higher than the conventional
chemotherapy because it is directly infused into the tumor and so it brings
better efficacy.
When JEAN took the
first interventional therapy, she felt worried when she was lying quietly on
the medical machine. One hour passed and the interventional therapy was
completed. JEAN said, “Interventional therapy is not as terrifying as I thought
it was. I did not feel anything. There was only a little bit of pain at the
beginning.”
After two sessions
of interventional therapy, the tumor had shrunk. Then JEAN took one session of cryotherapy. Cryotherapy
is done by releasing Argon gas to lower the temperature and freeze the tumor
and the surrounding tissue; then the He gas is released to thaw the frozen
tumor thus destroying it in the process.
After 6 sessions of
interventional therapy, one session of cryotherapy and consolidated
radiotherapy, the tumor cells in JEAN BUENA CARGULLO’s body have been destroyed
and her condition is currently stable and she now returns to work. Two years has passed, JEAN still comes back for regular check-up
every year. The
attending doctor of JEAN, told us that JEAN is in a good and stable condition
and so far there is not a sign of cancer recurrence.
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