Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1216 A Global Brain Science Challenge: Glioma, My Classmate Tao Guangzheng (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)
"Are you out of your mind?" Fang Yan repeated her mother's words while holding her chopsticks.

Mother He Huiru nodded:
"That's right, that's what his family said when they called."

“At first I didn’t quite believe it either. She came over to chat with me a few days ago and I saw that she was fine. But today she suddenly said that she was not in a clear mind. I didn’t see anything wrong with her before this.”

Fang Yan picked up his rice bowl and asked:
"Have you taken him to the hospital for a checkup?"

The old woman said:

"It has been checked."

"It was something like... a tumor, I've kind of forgotten."

He asked in dialect:
"Pituitary tumor?"

The old woman thought for a moment and shook her head:

"No."

She paused for a moment and then said:
"I think it's called something like glioma..."

"Gliomas?" Fang Yan asked, somewhat surprised.

The old woman nodded:

"Yep!"

Fang Yan's expression suddenly turned grim. This illness was troublesome...

Zhu Lin, standing to the side, asked Fang Yan:

"What kind of disease is this? I've never heard of it before."

Fang Yan came to his senses and said:
"A very difficult brain disease to treat. If the difficulty of treating a pituitary tumor is one, then the difficulty of treating a glioma is nine."

Everyone present was surprised to hear this.

Old Hu was still putting food on his wife's plate when he paused, looking at Fang Yan:

"Is it really that difficult?"

Fang Yan nodded and said:

"Well, from a Western medical perspective, most pituitary tumors are benign, grow relatively slowly, and have a complete capsule (except for some invasive pituitary tumors). They have relatively clear boundaries with the surrounding brain tissue and rarely metastasize to distant sites. The harm they can cause mainly stems from abnormal hormone secretion, such as prolactinomas causing menstrual disorders and growth hormone tumors causing acromegaly."

“Gliomas are different; they are basically malignant tumors with extremely high invasiveness.”

"Tumor cells exhibit 'invasive growth,' with blurred boundaries from normal brain tissue, much like tree roots embedded in the soil, where each is intertwined with the other."

"Moreover, high-grade gliomas grow rapidly and can invade the surrounding brain parenchyma in a short period of time, and even spread through cerebrospinal fluid. Moreover, even after surgery, the recurrence rate is extremely high."

“American brain science research institutes invest hundreds of millions of dollars in research every year, but there is still no good treatment.”

In my previous life, I had never heard of any cases where Western medicine had cured this disease.

The so-called success was merely a brief period of survival, lasting a few years or even a few months, after the surgery.

"What about traditional Chinese medicine?" my mother asked.

Upon hearing this dialect, my mother immediately became nervous.

Fang Yan shook his head with a serious expression and said:
"Traditional Chinese medicine... well, I haven't encountered this type of patient yet."

Fang Yan has read many ancient books, but there aren't actually that many medical cases related to the brain. Although he can match some of the symptoms of glioma, he's not sure if that's the disease.

The main problem is that people with dialects lack experience in this area.

In his past life, he only remembered the one doctor who had a record of completely curing the disease.

I met this person a while ago; he was a postgraduate candidate in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Hebei... Tao Guangzheng.

His family has been practicing medicine for nine generations, and he is skilled in treating many types of diseases, making him a true all-rounder in traditional Chinese medicine.

However, the medical case used to treat the illness was not from the present, but more than ten years later.

That was the daughter of one of his friends.

I suddenly fainted when I was in high school, and was taken to a local hospital in Dalian two weeks later, where I was diagnosed with this illness. Since the local hospital couldn't treat it, I went to Beijing for treatment.

The patient was scheduled to undergo surgery at Tiantan Hospital, but after opening the skull, it was discovered that the tumor had extensively integrated with normal brain tissue and was difficult to separate. The doctors were unable to remove it and had to suture it back together.

The parents had no choice, but luckily the girl's grandfather knew Tao Guangzheng's father-in-law, and they introduced her to Tao Guangzheng, who was a professor at the school at the time.

At that time, Tao Guangzheng was still writing books, but he already had several successful cases of cancer treatment. The family had no choice but to let him treat whatever he wanted, since Western medicine had given up on him.

When Tao Guangzheng took over, he used a prescription and added a secret formula he developed himself. It took three months to make the girl regain her senses, six months to make her move freely, and then she went to school while taking the medicine. She stopped taking the medicine a year later.

He then made several follow-up visits. The medical records show that after graduating from high school, the patient continued her studies, got married, had children, and later, when her children started elementary school, he made a final follow-up visit. The patient was still very healthy.

I remember the dialect of Tao Guangzheng's prescription, but the secret formula used in combination with it was not recorded in the medical records.

The dialect suggests it is likely a secret recipe from the Tao family.

Apart from that, Fang Yan doesn't recall any clear medical records of traditional Chinese medicine curing this disease.

Furthermore, this medical case was published in Tao Guangzheng's later years, and not many people knew about it.

I first learned about the dialect in a medical case book written by Tao Guangzheng in my previous life, which was included as a bonus.

"Fang Yan!?" His mother's voice pulled Fang Yan back from his thoughts.

He said:
"Oh, I was just thinking if there were any precedents in ancient books that could cure it, but it doesn't seem like they all match up."

Old Hu asked:

"There's no precedent to follow?"

"Yes." Fang Yan nodded.

After hearing this, the old woman asked:

"Then...can you think of a way? She's someone I know, after all. She was talking to me the other day about making tiger-head shoes for you and Linlin's child..."

Fang Yan put down his chopsticks and said to his mother, "Finding a solution is no problem. There are records of 'brain carbuncle' and 'headache like a splitting apart' in ancient books. The symptoms match up to some extent, but whether they are the same thing or not, no one can say for sure."

“I can go and take a look. I’ll check his pulse and tongue coating first, and once I understand the situation, I’ll try to prescribe a formula to adjust his condition. But I have to say upfront that I’m not entirely confident about this; I can only say I’ll do my best.”

My mother nodded:

“I understand... It’s good to give it a try, it’s good to give it a try. We can’t just stand by and watch... Her family is going crazy with worry.”

Old Hu swallowed the food in his mouth, put down his bowl, moved closer to Fang Yan, and lowered his voice: "I think this should be done quietly. Think about it, if this disease isn't cured, people might gossip later."

"You now have a 100% cure rate, and Director Liao still needs your reputation."

"Didn't you say that traditional Chinese medicine practitioners believe in not knocking on doors, especially for illnesses that Western doctors would turn away from? Just say that you're going to take a look for your aunt's sake. Whether it works or not, her family knows the truth. Don't tell anyone else."

Zhu Lin nodded in agreement: "Brother Hu is right. It's better to be cautious at times like this, so as not to end up doing a thankless job."

Fang Yan understood what they meant and nodded:

"I know. I'll just say it's a normal treatment, so I don't gain any undeserved fame or cause myself any trouble."

"Let's go and see what the situation is first. If there's really no way to deal with it, I'll make it clear to them and won't try to fight it out."

He Huiru finally breathed a sigh of relief and picked up a piece of green vegetable with her chopsticks, placing it in Fang Yan's bowl:

"Yes, yes, that's how it should be done."

"Then...when are you free? I'll let her family know."

"Tomorrow, I'll go to the hospital to see the patients first, and then go over in the afternoon." Fang Yan shoveled some rice into his mouth, already pondering Tao Guangzheng's prescription... Although there was no secret recipe, the general idea might be helpful, but without that secret ingredient, it would be quite troublesome.

Perhaps... I could contact him using my position as the director of the research institute?

P.S.: Tao Guangzheng's story is true.

I still owe you 12000 words after finishing this chapter.

That's all for today, please come early tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)