War
The War Between Humans and Cancer
Lu Yinxi wrapped the ends of Jian Qing’s hair with a towel, gently patting and sharing hair care tips with her: “Don’t rub your hair too hard. Like this, press the towel, pat it, squeeze out the excess water, then blow it with a hairdryer. It’s best to buy a bottle of hair oil and apply it when your hair is half dry…”
Jian Qing closed her eyes to rest, not responding, so it was unclear how much she had heard.
Understanding her fatigue, Lu Yinxi set the hairdryer to the lowest setting to reduce the noise, helping her fall asleep.
The medical profession is always overworked and exhausted, not protected by labor laws.
It’s not just physical exhaustion but also mental. One must always be in a state of high concentration.
With heavy lives on their shoulders, even a small mistake could result in irreparable consequences.
Blowing until the hair was about seventy to eighty percent dry, Lu Yinxi left it to air dry naturally.
The sun was shining brightly now but would weaken after 2 PM.
Lu Yinxi got up to get a blanket from the sofa, draped it over her, then sat back beside her, taking a pen and paper to sketch her drying hair in the sunlight.
In the evening, after Jian Qing went out and returned, Lu Yinxi found various hair care products and many tools designed for left-handed people at home.
Lu Yinxi was accustomed to using her left hand, but many everyday items, like scissors, mouse, and hairdryers, were designed for right-handed people, making them inconvenient for her to use.
She had been compromising since childhood.
No one had ever noticed her compromises.
Lu Yinxi picked up the new scissors, gesturing a few times, finding them very handy.
She looked at Jian Qing, her gaze becoming clear and soft.
Jian Qing didn’t look at her, silently doing her own things as usual.
Lu Yinxi retracted her gaze, smiled slightly, and organized the tools.
For the first time, she felt that this mentally ill person had a tiny bit of consideration.
The next day was Sunday, but hospitals have no weekends, only shifts.
In work mode, Jian Qing was more indifferent, often ignoring Lu Yinxi’s presence.
Lu Yinxi wasn’t always by her side either, occasionally helping doctors and nurses run errands, deliver items, and print materials.
In the corridor of the second oncology ward, there was a wish wall that Lu Yinxi would stop by and look at.
The wall was covered with colorful tags with encouraging words written on them.
【I can definitely beat the tumor. I still want to study, take exams, and drink milk tea. I haven’t had a girlfriend yet!】
【I hope my dad gets better. I want to take him to see the Great Wall and [censored].】
These were wishes written by patients and their families.
【All patients are our comrades in arms!】
【Come on, come on, don’t fall, don’t be discouraged, patients and families are watching you!】
These were messages left by the medical staff.
Everyone here encouraged and comforted each other.
As Lu Yinxi read through them, someone gently tugged at the corner of her white coat: “Sister.”
She looked down and saw a bald little girl with delicate features and a wristband on her left hand.
She squatted down to look the little patient in the eye and asked softly, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?”
The little girl’s eyes were full of helplessness: “I can’t find my mom…”
Lu Yinxi was startled by this, instinctively making the worst assumption.
In the hospital, there was comfort and companionship, but also abandonment and desertion. The bright and dark sides of human nature played out constantly.
Lu Yinxi stood up, took the little girl’s hand, and led her to the doctor’s office: “Which bed are you in?”
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The little girl limped: “Bed 8.”
Lu Yinxi looked down at her calf and squatted down again: “Do you need a hug?”
The little girl shook her head, lifted her trouser leg, revealing a prosthetic limb, and said in a childish voice, “I just got a new leg last week. I want to walk more. It’s been a long time since I walked.”
Lu Yinxi didn’t show pity or offer comfort, just took off her mask and smiled: “Okay, I’ll walk with you.”
As they walked, she asked when and where she last saw her mother.
When they reached the doctor’s office, Jian Qing saw the little girl and said to the patient in front of her, “Sorry, please wait a moment.”
Then she looked at the little girl: “Sangsang?”
Why did you sneak out again?
The little girl named Sangsang was clearly a bit scared, hugging Lu Yinxi’s leg and hiding behind her, looking at Jian Qing with her dark eyes.
Lu Yinxi patted her bald head: “From bed 8, she can’t find her mom. The medical record should have the contact information of her family.”
Jian Qing said to Sangsang, “Your dad hurt his leg yesterday. Your mom went to the orthopedics department to bring dinner to your dad. She’ll be back soon.” She also told Lu Yinxi, “Take her back to the ward. I have to work overtime tonight. You should eat something first.”
Lu Yinxi sighed in relief, nodded, and left the office holding the little girl’s hand.
Fortunately, history did not repeat itself. This time, she hadn’t encountered an abandoned patient.
Working overtime until 8 PM, Jian Qing, taking a break from her work, remembered that Lu Yinxi hadn’t returned to the office after taking Sangsang back to the ward.
She got up to look for her at bed 8.
Bed 8’s Sangsang was the youngest patient Jian Qing had, a bone cancer post-amputation recurrence case, only 10 years old this year.
She was diagnosed with a malignant bone tumor at 8, having complained of leg pain for a while. Her parents didn’t take it seriously, thinking she had just bumped into something while playing. They treated it with a few herbal patches. Later, when they saw her limping in pain, they took her to the hospital for a check-up.
That year, the doctor performed an amputation, cutting off her left calf to prevent the spread of cancer cells.
In oncology, there’s an important metric called the “5-year survival rate.” If a patient doesn’t relapse within five years, it can be considered medically cured, and the chance of recurrence drops significantly after five years.
Sangsang didn’t make it through those five years. She relapsed and metastasized in the second year after the amputation.
The cancer cells had metastasized to her lungs, making surgery unsuitable. After an MDT (multidisciplinary team) discussion, she was transferred from orthopedics to oncology.
Cancer patients feel more intense pain at night. Sometimes, Sangsang would wake up in pain at midnight. If she didn’t see her mom, she would be scared and sneak out of the ward to find someone in the doctor’s office.
The first time Jian Qing saw her come into the office, she rarely showed a bit of warmth, letting her sit by her side, waiting for her mom to return. Sangsang didn’t dare refuse, looking like she was kidnapped by a bad person, sitting beside her with a grievance, almost crying in fear.
Jian Qing wasn’t good at comforting children, and children were afraid of her.
When she rotated in pediatrics before, as soon as she walked into the ward, cries would erupt, scaring the pediatric director into quickly pushing her away.
Sometimes when she shared the elevator with patients, if there were children, they would start crying at the sight of her in a white coat. Some would even reach out to push her, crying and snotting, shouting, “Bad person, go away!” She had to step out and wait for the next one.
When she reached bed 8, Jian Qing didn’t go in, but leaned against the door, arms crossed, watching Lu Yinxi coax the child.
Lu Yinxi had set up a small table on the bed, sitting cross-legged, drawing doodles on paper while telling a story.
“Alright, this is the last story. After I finish, you have to let me go eat.”
“Okay, the last one.”
Lu Yinxi used a navy blue pen to draw a Q-version (cute) cancer cell with eyes and a nose, holding a spear, looking fierce.
Then she drew a normal-looking cell with a smiling face and labeled it “cell.”
“These are called cells. Our body has many cells. Suddenly, one day, a bad cell appeared. This bad cell is a traitor among normal cells.”
Sangsang’s eyes were glued to the paper, quietly listening to Lu Yinxi’s story.
“Bad cells steal nutrients from normal cells. The food we eat gets taken by them, and they are lazy and don’t work, just living off the benefits.”
Lu Yinxi continued to draw the Q-version cancer cell holding a big flag with the word “Recruit” on it.
“They also recruit more bad cells, growing rapidly, burning, killing, and looting in our body, setting up camp… just like the rebels in the 《Romance of the Three Kingdoms》 picture book you read.”
Sangsang had many storybooks at her bedside: Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms…
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Romance of the Three Kingdoms was on top and was the most worn, with the cover already curling.
Lu Yinxi then drew a cell with a military cap: “There are bad cells causing trouble, and naturally, there are good cells suppressing them. We generally call them immune cells. Immune cells are like the police in our body.”
She then drew two lungs: “Sometimes bad cells disguise themselves as good cells, escaping the police’s chase and gathering in the lungs, becoming mountain kings. They are so small that when there are few of them, we might not notice their existence. It’s only when their numbers increase and their scale becomes larger that we discover them.”
Sangsang vaguely understood: “Do I have a lot of bad cells in my body?”
Lu Yinxi nodded: “Yes. Previously, the bad cells were gathered in your calf, so the doctors directly performed surgery to eliminate the bad cells all at once. This is currently one of the most effective ways to defeat bad cells.”
The amputation surgery that took out the entire battlefield is known as surgical treatment. For patients with small solid tumors and no local or distant metastasis in the early and middle stages, surgery can offer the greatest benefit.
Lu Yinxi pointed to the lungs: “But these bad cells are very cunning. They can escape and transfer their base from your calf to your lungs, making a comeback.”
She thought of Jian Qing’s appearance and drew a female doctor in a white coat: “This is an oncologist, who can be considered the general or commander-in-chief directing the war. They will help you defeat the bad cells. The medication you receive during the day—”
She pointed to the IV drip: “That is equivalent to the commander dropping a bomb on the battlefield to kill the bad cells. However, there’s a drawback. Good cells might also be killed in the process. So, after receiving the medication, you’ll experience hair loss, vomiting, and feel very uncomfortable.”
IV therapy, also known as chemotherapy, involves the use of chemical drugs. Chemotherapy drugs do not differentiate between friend and foe, killing both cancer cells and normal cells.
“In addition to bombs, the commander also has a laser gun (radiotherapy) that uses radiation to kill bad cells. Of course, it has the same problem, killing both good and bad cells.”
Radiotherapy involves the use of radiation to treat cancer. Like chemotherapy, it also does not distinguish between friend and foe, resulting in damage to both healthy and cancerous cells.
Sangsang frowned and asked: “Can’t we avoid killing good cells? Is the commander so fierce and stupid?”
Hearing the little girl calling Jian Qing fierce and stupid in her childish voice, Lu Yinxi couldn’t help but laugh, agreeing: “Yes, she’s fierce and stupid!”
Jian Qing, leaning against the door: “…”
In the next second, Lu Yinxi explained: “Of course, we can’t blame her. It’s because we haven’t discovered better weapons yet. However, there is one method that doesn’t kill normal cells. Imagine archery.”
Lu Yinxi drew a bow and arrow and a target: “When shooting an arrow, we need to aim at the red dot in the center, which is the target. Bad cells also have targets. If the commander’s arrow (targeted therapy drug) hits the target, it can precisely kill the bad cells without harming normal cells.”
Sangsang said: “This is very good…”
“It is good, but there are two problems. First, there are not many targets found on bad cells; second, we lack suitable arrows (targeted therapy drugs). So, in many cases, we cannot use this method for treatment.”
Targeted therapy precisely aims at the targets on cancer cells, killing cancer cells without damaging normal cells.
“Is there no other way?”
“Yes, we can start a civil war and let immune cells attack the bad cells.”
“There are a few ways; I’ll give you one example. As I mentioned before, bad cells can disguise themselves and escape the police (immune cells). Can you guess how they do it?”
Sangsang shook her head: “I can’t guess.”
Lu Yinxi pointed to the previously drawn immune cell wearing a military cap.
“This immune cell has a lock (PD-1) on it, and the bad cell has a key (PDL-1).
As long as the key on the bad cell matches the lock on the immune cell, the immune cell will think the bad cell is a good cell and not attack it.”
“What we need to do is cover up the key or the lock so they can’t match. This way, the immune cells can recognize the bad cells and kill them.”
This method of starting a civil war and using immune cells to eliminate cancer cells is called immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy has been the biggest breakthrough in the field of oncology in the past decade.
Sangsang looked at the doodles, slowly digesting this knowledge.
Lu Yinxi continued to draw on the paper, soon sketching a delicate and pretty little girl holding the hand of a female doctor.
She handed the drawing to Sangsang, smiling gently: “Doctors are your comrades in arms, so don’t be afraid of them. Listen to the doctor sister, eat well, and sleep well. If you rest well, your immune cells will become stronger.”
From around 446 BC, when the Queen of Persia had her cancerous breast removed, starting the first revolution in surgical treatment of cancer, to the 21st century’s arrival of immunotherapy, the war between humans and cancer has lasted for thousands of years.
As long as cancer exists, the war will not end.
Every patient who bravely faces and fights the disease is a comrade in arms for doctors.
Turning on the faucet, warm water flowed out, and Lu Yinxi washed the ink stains off her hands.
In the ward, Sangsang’s mother had returned, holding Sangsang and coaxing her to sleep.
Lu Yinxi walked to the door, looking at the little girl lying in her mother’s arms.
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When sick, being able to lie in a mother’s arms is the most comforting thing.
The sense of security brought by family cannot be given by anyone else.
Lu Yinxi smiled and turned to leave.
Having sat cross-legged for a long time, her legs were a bit numb, and she walked slowly, supporting herself against the wall.
When she passed a small window, she stopped, looking up at the moon outside.
Her literary knowledge wasn’t high, and seeing the moon, she could only think of the line, “Raising my head, I look at the bright moon. Lowering my head, I think of my hometown.”
Hometown, hometown.
In her lifetime, will she ever be able to return to her hometown?
Will she ever see her family again?
She hadn’t seen her mother for many years. After breaking off at the age of twenty, they hadn’t spoken a word…
As the night wind flowed, she stood by the window, motionless, just gazing at the moon, thinking of her hometown.
Jian Qing came looking for her, carrying a bag of small bread rolls, not disturbing her.
The small window only let in a sliver of moonlight, just enough to cover the person by the window.
Lu Yinxi stood in the moonlight, while Jian Qing stood in the shadow, looking at her back, silently guarding her.
