Fuda Cancer Hospital-Guangzhou
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| Fuda Cancer Hospital-Guangzhou | |
| China Anti-Cancer Association | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Guangzhou, Guangdong, China |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Private |
| Funding | For-profit hospital |
| Hospital type | Specialized |
| Services | |
| Standards | Chinese Medicine Association |
| Emergency department | No |
| Beds | 100 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.fudahospital.com |
| Lists | |
Formally known as Fuda Cancer Hospital-Guangzhou (FCHG), Fuda is located in southern China in the city of Guangzhou. Fuda is best known among the late-stage cancer patients who no longer have treatment options with chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Instead, Fuda offers newer and sometimes experimental therapies. Fuda is most known for their case number of cryosurgeries (over 5,000) and use of brachytherapy beyond prostate cancers.
Recently, brachytherapy (also known as internal radiation) is a standard treatment for localized prostate cancer. However, Fuda has expanded its uses to a wide range of other cancers. Cryosurgery has also been expanded to cover more cancers such as cancers of the lung, prostate, cervix, liver, and other solid tumors larger than 1 cm, and assuming the tumors can be reached with the cryprobes-the tools used to administer cryosurgery. However, the both therapies cannot destroy the cancer that spreads through the patients body.
Fuda is not well known in China, a large number of Fuda's patients come from Asian countries, mostly from Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines while some patients are from Thailand, Malaysia, and others. However, patients do frequently also come from the United States, Australia, and Canada. Fuda also explored into European medical care market especially in Denmark, Sweden, and England. However, the Danish Ministry of Health (MOH) published a report about the efficiency of the Chinese cancer treatment with emphasis on the Fuda Cancer Hospital. The report concluded that the treatment given by Fuda was not better than a free treatment in Denmark while the patients need to spend their savings there. While the long term outcomes of therapies such as cryosurgery have yet to be been proven, the initial results of research have been very positive (Read: American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute). In the English version of the Danish report called Fuda's positive outcomes for pancreatic cancer were termed "undeniable". However, as the research for cryosurgery's long term effects have yet to be completed, the Danish Health Ministry determined they could not pay for the citizens to get treatment in China.
There is a common misunderstanding that Fuda offers cures. Understandably, many family members of cancer patients search the world for cures, but even Fuda can offer this. Fuda often makes is clear to patients and their families that the goal is to make cancer a chronic problem instead of a fatal one. The hospital's goal is long-term management combined with high quality of life. "Alternative" cancer treatment does not mean eastern medicines, Fuda's therapies are simply western therapies that are alternative to chemotherapy and radiation.
One of Fuda's best known cases in the media is under the case of Huang Chuncai, the China's Elephant Man. Several stories have been published by news outlets such as BBC, AP, Reuters, and other international news wires.
Controversy in Denmark
There has been a lot of controversy in Denmark regarding cost of treatment at Fuda Hospital, leaving many Danes disgruntled. The Danish are not accustomed to the western model of paying for medical care and are understandably upset when medical centers charge "real world" prices for medical care. These same complaints have also been leveled at hospitals in the United States and Germany, where Danish patients must use their own savings to pay for cancer treatment. There has thus been a back and forth between Fuda and Danish health professionals in the Danish media. This minor controversy outlines many of the failings of government-run health care. As cancer patients ask for more frequent CT and PET scans, the government often must make necessary decisions between cost and patient needs.
To date, Danish research universities are catching up with western countries (US, Germany)and Asian countries (China, Japan) by beginning their research on therapies such as local chemotherapy, cryosurgery, and immunotherapy.
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