1. Thousands of miles to the United States

"Mr. Zhang, hello, I am the representative of Addison Medical Devices in Country M, please take a look at this contract, I hope our cooperation can bring new solutions to your condition."

Zhang Jiao calmly looked at this standard yellow middle-aged man named Jem. This was introduced by his attending doctor, and since he was diagnosed with a glioma in the brain, which is commonly known as brain cancer, this is the only good news he has heard. The attending doctor has given him a clear explanation of his condition. Deep in his brain: a small glioma grew in the hypothalamus. In just one month, this annoying tumor has grown from 5 mm by 4 mm to 23 mm by 18 mm. That is, it grows from the size of a mung bean to the size of a broad bean.

It has not yet had a major impact on brain function. It's just that Zhang Jiao knows in his heart that since his hands began to tremble slightly uncontrollably, it has developed to the point that his lower body is often numb and sore. This growth rate, without the need for pathology, basically excludes the possibility of benignness. The most optimistic estimate of doctors is that there are only 6 months of health. The most important thing is that the location of his brain tumor is really not good, in the depths of the brain, it is extremely difficult to remove the surgery, to peel off the cerebral cortical layer, pass through the brain, corpus callosum, thalamus, in order to reach the hypothalamus, it can be said that all the way through. Do not damage any nerves or blood vessels on the way. Even if the scalpel reaches this site, it is not known whether the glioma will be able to separate from the normal tissues of the body. As far as the literature is available, there has not been a single successful case of postoperative survival of more than 3 months in the world. The risks of surgery far outweigh the risks of disease progression with conservative treatment. That is to say: without surgery, you can live healthily for half a year, and if you do surgery, the current cases that can be checked will either die on the operating table on the spot, and even if you get off the operating table, you will not live for 3 months.

Fortunately, Jem's arrival has brought him a new choice. Addison Medical Devices is developing a new device for optical fiber-guided high-energy particles to bombard cancer cells. Radiotherapy, in which high-energy particles bombard cancer cells, is not new. The discovery of X-rays opened the door to radiation therapy. In 1895, the German physicist Röntgen discovered the existence of X-rays. In 1898, the Curies discovered the radioactive element radium, which laid the foundation for radiotherapy. Addison's new technology is to use small optical fibers to guide the body to places that cannot be accurately reached by normal radiotherapy, such as deep in the brain, pancreatic islets and other parts of the human body where blood vessels accumulate in large quantities. In the past, radiotherapy technology could only bombard the lesion as a whole, which inevitably injured the good tissues of the human body. The most advanced gamma knife technology can locate the tumor and target radiotherapy, but there is also a problem, first of all, the positioning is not as accurate as the optical fiber. Although it is less likely to damage good tissue than whole-brain radiotherapy, it does not avoid brain damage. The prognosis is not ideal. With fiber optic guidance, you no longer have to kill 800 enemies and injure yourself 1,000.

For example, whole-brain radiotherapy uses a machine gun to protrude into the brain to the tumor, and it is impossible to distinguish between good and bad. The gamma knife is used to hit the tumor with a sniper rifle, although the aim is accurate, after all, if the gun is placed outside the brain, it is still necessary to cut it along the way, and the good tissue will inevitably be injured. It is also difficult to grasp the caliber, the strength is small, and the bullet has no lethality when it reaches the position. It's so strong, it's full of sparks and lightning along the way.

Addison's optical fiber can reach the tumor location in a roundabout way and then place the gun. This is very small for good tissues. It is equivalent to the special forces touching the side and executing the enemy against the head, and the caliber is also better to master, so as not to splash blood.

In addition, in the past, radiotherapy used the radiation of the radioactive substance itself, including α, β, and γ rays produced by radioactive isotopes. For the first time, Addison used a large-scale low-temperature superconducting accelerator to accelerate high-energy particles to nearly the speed of light before bombarding cancer cells.

Because Addison is looking for volunteers from all over the world. The attending doctor saw hope and encouraged Zhang to sign up. It was the location and size of Zhang's brain tumor that caught Addison's attention. It's a perfect case. Even on a global scale, there are not many such cases that can be found. Either the location is not so complicated, and it does not reflect the superiority of fiber guidance. Otherwise, by the time the tumor is found in such a complex location, the tumor is already too large. Because this location is difficult to detect, by the time there is an obvious disease, the tumor is often already very large. Lost the value of the operation.

This is the reason why Edison Company came to Huaxia to find Zhang Class for the first time. Because such a condition often progresses quickly, the window period for surgical recovery may only be about half a month.

Zhang Lesson looked at the risks told in the annex of the contract, there were hundreds, several pages.

"Mr. Jem, the worst outcome is death, and it can't be worse than now. I'll just sign it."

"Mr. Zhang, you can call me Li Jianwen, I also grew up in Huaxia. You also know that your illness is developing rapidly, our company hopes that you will get up immediately and go to country M, all procedures and all expenses during the period will be borne by our company, correspondingly, you need to give up some of your rights and interests, and appoint our company as your guardian. Responsible for the development and implementation of your plan during your treatment. At the same time, thank you again for your contribution to the medical cause. Whatever the outcome, I think your name will definitely remain in the history of radiotherapy medicine."

Ten days later, Zhang had already undergone two radiotherapy treatments in country M, and the radiation had already begun to shrink the tumor.

"Professor Harrison, wouldn't it be too radical to increase the energy by a factor of 10? Hope you think again. ”

"Dear Jem, I know your feelings for the Huaxia people, please believe me, if there is only one person in this world who does not want him to die, then this person must be me"

"Professor, you misunderstood, my relationship with Zhang Jiao is only limited to the relationship between doctors and patients, I just feel that it is too risky to increase my energy by 10 times."

"Lee!" Harrison said solemnly: "I also know that increasing the energy by 10 times is too risky, if this tumor grows in other locations, we only need to eliminate him step by step, and then there are more than a dozen treatments, we should be able to completely kill this damn tumor, but Zhang's brain pathway is getting smaller and smaller, he may have another 2 or 3 surgeries, his brain pathway will be completely closed, God leaves him not much chance, if we can't completely kill this tumor in the few remaining opportunities, You and I both know that this tumor is still going to grow, and I don't want my perfect case to leave us a year later. Again, if there is only one person in this world who doesn't want him to die, then that person must be me, you must know that I have worked hard for 12 years for this day. ”

"Professor, does Zhang know about increasing energy?"

"Of course, although we are his appointed guardians, I also arranged for him to sign an informed consent form."

Harrison's secretary walked into the lab and said, "Professor, the dean wants your paper to be published in August as soon as possible, so that we can compete for next year's Lasker Prize in Medicine." ”

"Oh, Erin, you can help me get back to the Dean, this is my project, not Addison's. I know when it's time to get published. By the way, tell Tom Addison, don't meddle in my project"

Erin said, "Professor, Tom is not pressuring you through the dean to speed things up. You also have to understand him, your friendship has been more than 20 years, Addison has invested more than 1 billion US dollars in this project alone, and the pressure of the board of directors is all on Tom's shoulder, if you can win the Lasker Medical Clinical Award this time, I think, Tom will be proud of your 20 years of friendship, and he can also raise his eyebrows on the board of directors."

Jem also said: "Professor, we should pay more attention this time, the Lasker Prize is known as the vane of the Nobel Prize in Medicine"

"Jem, let's discuss the matter of the paper later, let's discuss Zhang's surgery plan first, this time the dose is increased by 10 times is a huge test for the accelerator"