(Interview with Gracia and his father)

“St. Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital, brings hope and more choices to our whole family.” Recently, the father of a cancer patient Gracia from Manila, the Philippines expressed his feelings excitedly.

Suffered from cancer at the age of 18, interrupted his studies

Gracia is a young lad of 18, originally full of energy and youth spirit, but fate has brought him a great test. In July 2023, Gracia found a lump in his neck, and it was becoming bigger, made him suffer from insomnia. In local hospital, he underwent percutaneous needle biopsy and the result showed Hodgkin lymphoma. The PET-CT scan showed that the enlarged lymph nodes in his left cervical spine with a maximum segment of 71*43*93mm. Gracia and his family were frightened by this, as a result, his school work was forced to break off.

The local hospital in the Philippines advised him to take chemotherapy, but they had heard that chemotherapy had a lot of side effects and Gracia was only 18 and didn’t want to let these adverse reactions affect his life in the future. To seek for alternative treatment, they visited a lot of hospitals and doctors, finally they found St. Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou on the recommendation of a friend. 

（Gracia and his father）

Minimally invasive therapy achieved remarkable success

“Frankly speaking, we were very confused at that time, didn’t dare to hold out too much hope, and it’s hard not to feel a little uneasy about going to a strange country.”But when Gracia and his parents disembarked from the plane, they were touched by the sight of the shuttle car at the entrance of the airport. “It’s considerate and convenient, especially when we’re in a strange place, the pick-up arrangement was very humanistic.”

After admitted to our hospital, Gracia took related examination and the result showed he has enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of his neck, some of which were fused into clusters, and he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The Multidisciplinary team of our hospital decided to implement interventional therapy for him based on his condition, and offered myocardial nutrition therapy for him after operation to ensure a good body status.

（Aug 2013, before treatment: colorful parts showed multiple lumps）

（Dec 2023, after treatment: achromatic color, showed tumors had disappeared）

When everything was prepared, our doctors performed the first percutaneous arterial tumor infusion chemotherapy for him, the process was smooth and didn’t cause any uncomfortable feelings for the patient.”After receiving interventional therapy, I felt that my pain was relieved quite a bit.” Gracia and his family were satisfied with the progress.

(Gracia and his father with the attending doctor)

Interventional therapy is operated under the guidance and monitoring of imaging equipment, which can directly and precisely achieve tumor lesion and no big damage caused at the same time. Therefore, it has many advantages such as accuracy, safety, high-efficiency, applicable to a wide range of cancer, less complication, becomes the preferred treatment methods for some diseases.

The tumor on his neck has significantly shrunk after 2 sessions of interventional therapy, which shows an initial victory in treatment. 

They raise hope in optimistic atmosphere

Gracia’s father told us that he was most impressed that when they arrived, they found that although the hospital was full of patients with tumor, they were all very active and the whole atmosphere was good. There were even some patients who were in stage III or stage IV, both the doctors and patients themselves had not lost their confidence. This was very different from what he experienced and felt in hospitals of the Philippines, he quite liked the atmosphere.

For his part, Gracia said he was saddened by the way cancer affected his school life, preventing him from studying as normally as his friends and missing out on many events. He believes that, even though lymphoma has affected his school life, but now that he has seen the surprising results of the treatment, he also has renewed hope in life. But now, seeing the surprising results of the treatment, he also has renewed hope in life and believes that he will soon be able to return to his normal school life.

Finally, he encourages other patients not to lose hope, believe in doctors, believe in themselves, cancer is not unbeatable!