2024-05-10 10:06:25
Taekyung Hanyang University Hospital ENT Professor – Oral Cancer Kim Hee-sang
If you include kidney cancer, you will have to undergo 4 cancer surgeries alone.
“I absolutely trust my doctor friend and receive treatment.”
At some point, my gums started to swell. I thought it was a common gum infection, so I wasn’t too worried. Treatment was virtually completed by taking anti-inflammatory medication.
Contrary to expectations, the gum inflammation worsened day by day. I went to the local dentist. The doctor’s expression was unusual. The doctor told me to go to a big hospital. It was only then that I started to get worried.
A biopsy was taken at a large dental hospital. The doctor said he had malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer, in his mouth. This is a story from 7 years ago, in July 2017. This is how Kim Hee-sang (65), who was in his late 50s at the time, began his battle with oral cancer.
●I overcame cancer, but it came back…
In fact, this is not the first time Mr. Kim has been diagnosed with cancer. It was in 2010 when his father went to Sansan. He felt the need to urinate, so he rushed to do his business, but blood came out, the size of a grain of rice. The next day, he rushed to the local hospital and underwent tests. The doctor said it was kidney cancer. At the time, his wife, who heard the news before Mr. Kim, cried profusely.
Mr. Kim’s mind also went blank. Still, he did not despair. The cancer mass was large and the stage of kidney cancer was close to stage 3, but fortunately it had not spread to other organs. The doctor’s explanation that I would be fine as long as the surgery went well was a great comfort.
I went straight to the operating table. He had his entire left kidney, which had cancer, removed. The result of the surgery was good. Cancer cells were no longer visible. Thanks to this, she did not receive chemotherapy. After that, the progress was very good. Five years passed, and in 2015, Mr. Kim was diagnosed with complete recovery from kidney cancer.
Did you say it was a good thing or many demons? It didn’t take long for me to enjoy the joy of being free from cancer. Two years later, Mr. Kim was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Oral cancer. Mr. Kim felt like the sky was falling. “I thought this cancer could be difficult, and I told his wife the same,” he said. “I remember my wife not being able to speak,” he said.
There is a reason why Mr. Kim was shocked. First of all, the disease was stage 4. This means that the survival rate is low because the cancer has already progressed to a significant extent. In fact, the condition of the mouth was miserable. Cancerous lumps were attached to his gums and the roof of his mouth, and almost the entire upper gum bone was destroyed. Moreover, the cancer cells have already spread to the lymph nodes. Even doctors at large hospitals said, “The cancer is so advanced that surgery is difficult, so let’s try chemotherapy first.”
What the doctor suggested at the time was immunotherapy. It was said that the treatment cost alone was about 150 million won because it was not covered by health insurance. Even then, the probability of complete cure is less than 20%. Mr. Kim was experiencing financial difficulties due to the collapse of the company he was running at the time. He was in a situation where he could not dream of immunotherapy. His mind became more complicated. Mr. Kim said, “Honestly, at the time, I accepted the diagnosis of oral cancer as a virtual ‘death sentence.’”
![Recurrence of cancer metastasis… What is the secret to surviving all four surgeries?[병을 이겨내는 사람들]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/05/09/124860354.1.jpg "Recurrence of cancer metastasis… What is the secret to surviving all four surgeries?[병을 이겨내는 사람들]")
●I trusted my friend and went up to the operating table.
The news that Mr. Kim had cancer soon spread to his high school classmates. My high school friends asked me how I was doing. Mr. Kim calmly told his saddened friends that he had put his heart down.
One day a friend came to visit him. He said, “One of our alumni is Taekyung, a professor of otolaryngology at Hanyang University Hospital. “I heard that friend is good, so let’s go,” he said, persuading Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim refused, saying, “I don’t want to be a burden to my friend.” His friend dragged him by force and took him to Professor Tae.
As soon as Professor Tae saw Mr. Kim, he immediately began the examination. Professor Tae said, “If the cancer has spread to the base of the neck, I cannot perform surgery because it is beyond the scope of otolaryngology. “If not, let’s try surgery.”
It had been two months since I was diagnosed with oral cancer. Meanwhile, the oral cancer had grown to 7 cm in size. It was confirmed again that it had metastasized to the lymph nodes. The good news is that it did not spread to the lungs or other organs. Professor Tae decided that surgery could be performed. Professor Tae said, “Surgery is the best treatment for malignant melanoma. However, my friend’s condition was so bad that I couldn’t guarantee success,” he recalled of that time.
After hearing that surgery had been decided, Mr. Kim asked who would perform the surgery. Professor Tae said he would do the housework himself. Mr. Kim said, “If that’s the case, I will trust you and get on the operating table.”
The difficult surgery has begun. Professor Tae began surgery to remove oral cancer first. A 10cm incision was made along the side of his nose up to the philtrum area. He removed all the inner bones and the roof of the mouth to remove any remaining cancer cells. Then, the plastic surgery staff began the second surgery to fill the empty mouth. The medical staff removed flesh from Mr. Kim’s thigh and transplanted it into his mouth. This entire surgery took a full 12 hours.
After the surgery was completed, a biopsy was performed. Not even microscopic cancer cells were visible. Professor Tae said, “At that moment, I was confident of the success of the surgery and complete recovery.” In fact, Mr. Kim did not receive chemotherapy or radiation treatment afterward.
●Kidney cancer recurred after 10 years
Medically, if cancer is not found even 5 years after surgery, it is considered ‘cured’. Accordingly, Mr. Kim was diagnosed with complete recovery from kidney cancer in 2015. In the same way, oral cancer will also be diagnosed as cured by 2022.
It really seemed like that would happen. The surgery went well, and I had follow-up tests every 3 or 6 months and no cancer cells were found. Three years passed like that. Naturally, I thought that I would be completely cured in just two more years.
Reality turned out differently than expected. In 2020, cancer occurred in the lungs. Both Professor Tae and Mr. Kim were heartbroken. This is because there is a possibility that oral cancer has spread to the lungs. Professor Tae said, “Oral cancer usually spreads easily to the lungs. In particular, malignant melanoma frequently recurs. “In this situation, the survival rate is less than 30%.”
A biopsy was performed and unexpected results were obtained. The tissue was the same as the kidney cancer that developed 10 years ago and was already cured. This means that kidney cancer metastasized to the lungs within 10 years. Mr. Kim had to get on the operating table again. The thoracic surgery staff at Hanyang University Hospital removed part of the lung.
This wasn’t the end. Two years later, in December 2022, the cancer recurred in the kidney area that had been removed. Mr. Kim went back to the operating table and underwent his fourth cancer surgery, removing lymph nodes in the area. Fortunately, the oral cancer did not recur or spread. Thanks to this, Mr. Kim was diagnosed with a cure for oral cancer not long before the kidney cancer recurred.
Kidney cancer continues to plague Mr. Kim to this day. In July of last year, cancer was discovered in his right kidney, which was otherwise fine. Kidney cancer had recurred. However, this time I did not go to surgery. Park Seong-yeol, a professor of urology at Hanyang University Hospital who is treating Mr. Kim, explained, “The immune anti-cancer effect is well maintained, so we are only conducting follow-up tests.”
There is something I am curious about. More than 10 years have passed, but are there many cases of cancer recurring? Regarding this, Professor Park said, “There are often cases of kidney cancer recurring even after 10 to 20 years. However, since most people are asymptomatic like Mr. Kim, only annual follow-up tests are often performed,” he explained. This means that although you have kidney cancer, if you manage it well, you can live well without surgery or other treatment. Mr. Kim comes to the hospital about once a year for follow-up tests. He said the cancer cells are currently smaller than a grain of rice and are no longer growing.
●“Communicate with the doctor with a positive attitude.”
Although he overcame several crises, Mr. Kim became more relaxed again. Even though his kidney cancer metastasized and recurred after 10 years, he was not overly worried. Mr. Kim said, “I decided to think that one of his mischievous friends had come back. “He didn’t feel a sense of crisis or anything like that.”
After fighting illness for a long time, he actually found some peace of mind. Mr. Kim said, “I successfully endured three surgeries, and I am also coping well with the fourth immunotherapy treatment, so I thought, ‘I wonder if I can’t do anything.’ Besides, he has a reliable doctor friend, so there is no need to worry,” he said with a smile. He believes that he can overcome cancer, and he has already done his best by faithfully following the doctor’s instructions and devoting himself to treatment. The following is the meaning of heaven.
Professor Tae commented, “This friend gets along well with people and is positive in everything he does. This positive attitude was a great help in overcoming cancer.” Professor Tae said, “The most important thing in treatment is the patient’s positive mind. “If a positive patient develops a trusting relationship with the doctor, treatment becomes that much easier,” he explained.
Regarding this, Mr. Kim said, “I trusted my doctor implicitly, perhaps because he was my high school classmate. “He also tried to do the same when receiving treatment at the urology department,” he said. Mr. Kim said, “There are many people around me who take strange drugs or foods without listening to doctors, but I think it is not only useless, but it also wastes time and makes the body worse. He completely rejected such things. “I think we got good results thanks to this,” he said.
Mr. Kim has also changed a lot after undergoing multiple cancer surgeries and treatments. As I already said, I feel much more relaxed. And I always live with a grateful heart. Before that, I got angry a lot when business wasn’t going well or I was stressed. I rarely get angry now. In fact, we hear more and more people say they are more considerate of others.
Also pay attention to health care. Walk more than 10,000 steps every day. Of course, before I got cancer, I had built up a wall around exercise. Now, I feel uncomfortable without exercising. I also developed the habit of being careful in everything. A person who drinks alcohol every day rarely even touches it. Mr. Kim laughed and said, “I feel like I’m getting healthier this way.”
＜Kim Hee-sang’s battle with kidney cancer and oral cancer＞
Kidney cancer discovered in 2010, left kidney removed
Red bean tablets cure kidney cancer after 5 years in 2015
Diagnosed with oral cancer (malignant melanoma) in July 2017
September 2017 Oral cancer removal and oral reconstruction surgery (12 hours)
February 2020: Kidney cancer metastasis to the lungs discovered, partial lung resection performed
Oral cancer declared cured after 5 years in September 2022
December 2022: Recurrence of cancer in left kidney area, lymph node removal.
Recurrence of right kidney cancer confirmed in July 2023.
However, since it is small and stable, only follow-up tests are being performed.
Reporter Kim Sang-hoon [email protected]
2024-05-10 10:06:25