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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 13th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2010> The Savior of Liver Cancer-Hu Chi-Tan
Curing People and their Hearts; Practicing Medicine to Save the World
      Dr. Chi-Tan Hu said, “The fun of study is to use the simplest way to solve the most difficult problem. However, study is full of frustrations as well. Only when a person never gives up and insists not to give in can he/she stand up from the setback and find something new.”
      Although Dr. Hu was brought up in poverty, he worked his way through college in Taiwan . He wished to benefit all mankind and become a doctor. He worked hard without complaint and made unremitting efforts to complete the school work and the training of physician. However, he gave up the substantial income because he said, “The most important purpose of life is not making money.” He hoped to engage in medical study to relieve the suffering of the patients truly in addition to providing limited clinical treatments. Therefore, he came to practice medicine in Hualien Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital which lacks of resources and actively participate in giving free medical consultation to serve the disadvantaged patients by using the spare time of practicing medicine and conducting studies. In 1998, he went to study his MD/PhD in University of Cambridge , UK and conducted the study on the infectious mechanism of Hepatitis B. With his unremitting efforts, he discovered four new findings. Among them, he found a new molecular biological gene experimental method, which contributed a lot for molecular biological scholars to conducting relevant electrophoresis experiments and speeded up the process of study. The study was issued by “Electrophoresis,” representing the highest academic achievement of molecular biology. He was the first to discover that the activation of “snail family transcription factors” was the main cause for liver cancer metastasis, which laid a foundation for the target therapy or gene therapy of liver cancer and brought hopes to patients.
 
 
His Mother Earned the Living by Carrying “A Shoulder Pole”
      Dr. Hu Chi-Tan was born in Hong Kong in 1963. When he was a child, his father liked gambling and failed his business. In order to survive, his father once brought his mother and children to escape to Macau to avoid creditors. The original affluent life suddenly fell into poverty. His father is 15 years older than his mother. During this period, his father's business was unable to recover after the decline and owing to his elder age, he never had a stable job. Although his mother did not receive any education, she was quite strict in raising children. She bore the responsibility of family livelihood and went out to work. She was a cleaner of a business building in Central Hong Kong and she also made money by recycling used paper and aluminum cans. Although she did not make much money, she gradually deposited the money in the hope that she could educate her children well. His tuition was paid through his part-time work and the hard-earned money from his mother by collecting used paper and aluminum cans.
 
 
Working His Way through the College, experiencing the Coldness and Warmth of Life, and Making up His Mind to Help People

      As the youngest child in his family, Dr. Hu was an outgoing and active child. He has two older brothers and two older sisters. When he was young, he did not have to worry about the economic problem in his family under the protection of his parents, brothers, and sisters. He did not understand the hardship and hope of his mother. He tended to neglect the importance of school work, sleep, and meals to play soccer with the neighboring children. When he grew older, he started to realize the heavy burden of his parents to raise five children. To help the family livelihood, he also started to work part-time and got in touch with people from different levels. He met some good people, but he also met some bad people. He made many friends of the same background and experiences and they would encourage one another. He experienced the coldness and warmth of life in such growing process and deeply understood the hardship of ordinary people. Therefore, when practicing medicine in the future, he understands how to treat patients with thoughtful attitude and the power of warmth.
      In order not to fail the expectation of his mother, he made up his mind to study hard. His academic performance was excellent in junior high school and tended to be the top three students in his class. He also joined Hong Kong Red Cross and served as a volunteer with the members everywhere to assist and provide service to different disadvantaged friends. As a result, his easy-going and friendly character was developed.
 
 
Leaving the Hometown to Study Alone in Medical School in Taiwan
      In 1984, Dr. Hu passed the entrance Examination of Taipei Medical College (today's Taipei Medical University ) and came to Taipei alone from Hong Kong . The school work of medical college was heavy; however, to reduce the family burden, he had to work part-time by using his spare time and summer vacation to raise money for his tuition, miscellaneous fees, and living expenses. He graduated from the school in 1994 with the hardship of heavy school work and work-study.
      In college, he was also the representative of overseas Chinese student. Because overseas students from different places of the world all lived in a strange environment, at that time, he was responsible for representing all the overseas Chinese students to communicate with the school and strive for their rights. Although his life was occupied by school work and part-time work, he still actively participated in school clubs. The most special thing was that he joined the drama club and was recommended to act as the leader of drama club to lead the entire club to be the school representative to participate in national drama competition.
 
 
Making money is not the most important purpose of life

      After graduating from college, in 1991, he received the residency training at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei . In 1995, he returned to Taipei Medical College and became the specialist and chief general resident doctor at Division of Gastroenterology. In the end of 1996, he completed the five-year residency training and obtained the qualification of an attending physician.
      The most touching thing was that when he obtained the qualification of an attending physician, the dean of Taipei Medical College intended to introduce him to work as the physician in district hospital, which would earn a substantial income every month. However, he suggested that the most important purpose of life was to making money. He hoped to service in a hospital, which was not aimed at making money and enabled him to engage in medical studies in addition to providing limited clinical treatments. He suggested that after the 7-year study in medical college, the only thing he intended to do is to relieve the suffering of patients.
      He said, “I want to work in a hospital, which is not aimed at making money and enables me to conduct studies and offer the top internationalized medical treatments to patients.” Clinically, he does not allow himself to make any mistake on patients. However, in terms of study, he always finds better treatments from mistakes. Therefore, he suggests that the suffering of people can only be relieved from study. He made up his mind to join Tzu Chi General Hospital and gave up the handsome pay admired by everyone to move his family to the Eastern Taiwan . Although he engages in providing clinical treatments and serving patients, he does not forget to continually pursue further education.
 
 
Studying Hepatitis B to Benefit all Mankind
      He experienced Typhoon Herb right after he came to the hospital. The typhoon passed through Taiwan and caused severe casualties. When he visited the disaster area with the hospital and participated in giving free medical consultation, he was astonished by the scene of bereaved families. He immediately asked the hospital to deliver drugs to provide both mental and physical care to victims. Soon after he returned to the hospital, the emergency department of the hospital was deficient in doctors and no one would like to take the responsibility at that time. He agreed to working shifts in emergency department voluntarily. After supporting the department for a year, he passed the entrance examination of MD/PhD of University of Cambridge , UK and was supported by the hospital to study abroad at public expense.
      In 1998, he went to University of Cambridge for further education. He studied hard in the laboratory without rest and spent only three years to obtain his degree of MD/PhD to return to Taiwan . Although life was hard when studying in UK , he experienced a completely different life experience. He also profoundly perceived that only when a person never gives up and insists on not to give in can he/she stand up from the setback and find something new.
      The study he conducted in UK was the study on the infectious mechanism of Hepatitis B. With his unremitting efforts, he discovered four new findings. The first finding was that he found a new molecular biological experimental approach for isolating genes, which speeded up all relevant molecular biological studies around the world, including both animals and plants. The second finding was that he successfully cultured the Hepatitis B virus in vitro. The third finding was that he discovered a new experimental approach of polymerase chain. The forth finding was that he found the gene that causes cardiac hypertension in an interdisciplinary way. He successfully graduated from the school owing to these four findings.
 
 
Winning the highest academic achievement in molecular biology-his study was issued by the journal of Electrophoresis

      Among his findings, the most important one was that he found a new molecular biological experimental approach for isolating genes. He said that effect of gene isolation in electrophoresis could be better when adding liver oil similar materials to electrophoresis and the effect was twice better than the traditional one.
      This study contributed a lot to the molecular biological scholars around the world for conducting relevant electrophoresis experiments, which speeds up the process of study. For example, originally it requires ten experiments and took ten times the time to complete the study. The adoption of the new approach shortens the experiment time and speeds up the findings of research results. The paper was issued on the journal of Electrophoresis, representing the highest academic achievement of molecular biology.
 
 
“Snail gene”-the switch for inhibiting the recurrence of liver cancer
      After returning to Taiwan, in less than two years, he filed the application for pursuing further education at National Institutes of Health, US and received the top national training in US. He made efforts to pursue knowledge and learnt approaches to overcome difficulties.
      After returning to Taiwan , he and his team also actively participated in studying the prevention methods and treatment for liver diseases. Recently, he made a breakthrough in developing the best method for inhibiting the mortally caused by metastasis of liver cancer. He was the first to discover that the main cause for liver cancer metastasis was the activation of “snail gene (transcription factor snail),” which laid a foundation for the target therapy and gene therapy of liver cancer and endowed the patients with a hope. “Transcription factor snail” is the switch of genes in the body and is also called “snail gene.” Once the snail gene is activated, the hepatocellular carcinoma still will recur even after the resection. If the reverse sequence of snail gene is injected into the gene, the gene will not express and the metastasis can be inhibited, which is the molecular basis for preventing the metastasis of liver cancer. It is estimated that a new drug will be available in the market after five years of the successful study.
      Dr. Hu indicated that Snail was first found in Drosophila and found in human beings later on. Because it moves slowly, it is also called “snail gene.” After having liver cancer, the liver caner still recur in may people even though they have undergone the resection for cancer cells. The liver cancer research center found that the cause is the activation of transcription factor snail, which leads to the “over expression” of gene and cancer metastasis. If the switch can be turned off to make the gene “unable to be expressed,” the cancer can be inhibited.
 
 
Practicing medicine with cheerfulness, curing people and their hearts
      At present, he has already used to giving medical consultation to more than one hundred people at each out-patient service. In the journey of practicing medicine, he treats patients wholeheartedly and it is his consistent attitude to “find” the cause of disease for patients. The accumulation of medical experiences also makes him find that the cause for the so-called long-term “gastric disease,” “chest pain,” “back pain,” and “cough” is the problem of “digestion.” After verifying the cause of disease, he always enables the patient to understand that the disease can be cured through the most direct way to make the patient feel relieved and the disease can be cured sooner.
      He also personally experienced and introduced “transnasal endoscopy” to replace the traditional gastroscopy because he said that only when a doctor himself/herself experienced the approach in person can he/she understand the feeling and know truly how to reduce the discomfort of patients. He also invented new approaches of nasal anesthesia—“endoscopic guidance spray” and “swab guidance nose pad” to reduce the pain of patients. He instructed the techniques and his experiences to new doctors to benefit all the people.
 
 
Pioneering work in stem cell research

      Dr. Hu has been the Principal Investigator of liver cancer research center for years and he has promoted the enrollment project to hospitals, schools, and communities to ask people to provide their remaining samples for research. Approximately 20 thousand people have participated in the project. A research resource center which is large enough to represent Hualien region will be established to save the cost of manpower and funds and provide the overall medical staff for research application. In addition, he assisted in the establishment of “Tzu Chi Stem Cell Bank” and “Research Databank,” which was a pioneering work in the field of stem cell research in Taiwan . Their major objectives will be to provide the platform for relevant stem cell research institutes, develop gene therapy, and benefit all mankind. He also proposed relevant projects such as culturing regenerative cells by culturing follicle cells and lipocytes to expand the resources of stem cells.
      Dr. Hu always remembers the saying of Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi, “Using your whole heart, carefulness, and patience to treat every person, matter, and object. Mercy is to contribute to people without complaining.” He fulfilled the saying. To every patient, Dr. Hu is a good doctor of whole heart, carefulness, patience, and mercy.