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54-year-old oncologist from St. Petersburg put on his feet a girl with stage 4 cancer. The doctors refused Irina, they said that she was hopeless.
Oncologist Eugene Levchenko - Head of the thoracic department of the Petrov National Oncology Research Center. Behind the man about 20 years of experience, fifteen thousand operations and hundreds of rescued patients, including the world’s first operation on autotransplantation of the trachea, which was grown from the patient’s stem cells.
In 2009, using an innovative technique, the surgeon removed 70 metastases from her lungs. A survey in September of this year confirmed that the girl is healthy.
"Site" He will tell you about a brilliant surgeon, a kind person and the future of Russian oncology - Yevgeny Levchenko, who radically changed the approach to the treatment of cancer patients.
Evgeny Levchenko The most unique surgery surgeon-oncologist conducted in 2009. Still quite a child, 17-year-old Irina with the 4th stage of osteosarcoma suffered enough. She first became ill at 13: osteosarcoma of the leg, numerous chemotherapy and eventually amputation.
The torment of a very young girl did not end there. Metastases went to the lungs: 28 in the right, 42 in the left. “Hopeless patient, nothing else,” everyone said, disavowing the girl.
When Irina was 17, she went to Dr. Levchenko. This lucky accident helped the girl literally escape the grave. Yevgeny Levchenko decided to have an operation. Removed 42 metastases from the patient's right lung, and a few months later 28 metastases from the left.
“Emotionally, this was perhaps the most difficult operation. Removal of metastases For thoracic surgeons, this is not a big problem. The problem is that there are still micrometastases. Then there will be a relapse. I've been operating on malignant tumors all my life. If a doctor tells me that he removed 42 metastases, I will definitely answer that there was a 43rd, which he did not find.
During the operation, the doctor used the chemoperfusion. The affected organ is disconnected from the general circulatory system and metastases are washed with a chemical preparation of a concentration that a person would not withstand if the drug circulated throughout the body.
For a successful innovative operation, Yevgeny Levchenko was awarded the Perelman Prize, which occupies an honorable place in the oncologist’s office. But the main award for the operation was not the doctor, but the patient. And that prize is life.
“At present, the girl is 26 years old, she does not receive treatment, is under the supervision of doctors and periodically undergoes examinations,” says Levchenko.
One day before the next scientific congress, Yevgeny Levchenko asked a happy patient to take a picture of his X-ray shot against the background of a window, so that his colleagues could show: “I am looking for the first time – a spoiled picture, something motley in the background.” I looked around, and there's a flowering apple orchard outside the window. I realized I was wrong. We look at patients in terms of images, but if you look at them, there's life behind them.
There is a Buddhist parable about a man who ran away from a tiger, ran to the edge of a cliff and saw another one below. He jumped and grabbed a bitch. The tree began to break. And suddenly he noticed the berry, reached out and ate it. The man felt that it was the most delicious berry in life. When we give a patient 6, 12 months, a year, 5 years, the taste of life is very different. Yevgeny Levchenko maintains his mental balance with the help of yoga and green tea.
“My advice is that green tea should be stored in the freezer as it continues to ferment. In order for it to preserve its taste, there should be no oxygen access, says Yevgeny Levchenko. But the surgeon’s main passion is his job.
“When I come to the surgery and stand at the table, time stops. When I finish, I wonder how much time has passed. One step after another, operation after operation. When ex-patients come in a few years, or a patient calls and says: “Today, 15 years since you operated on your dad, he asked to find you and say thank you very much, he is doing well,” – it gives strength, says the enthusiastic surgeon, and we can not hold back tears.
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In 2009, using an innovative technique, the surgeon removed 70 metastases from her lungs. A survey in September of this year confirmed that the girl is healthy.
"Site" He will tell you about a brilliant surgeon, a kind person and the future of Russian oncology - Yevgeny Levchenko, who radically changed the approach to the treatment of cancer patients.
Evgeny Levchenko The most unique surgery surgeon-oncologist conducted in 2009. Still quite a child, 17-year-old Irina with the 4th stage of osteosarcoma suffered enough. She first became ill at 13: osteosarcoma of the leg, numerous chemotherapy and eventually amputation.
The torment of a very young girl did not end there. Metastases went to the lungs: 28 in the right, 42 in the left. “Hopeless patient, nothing else,” everyone said, disavowing the girl.
When Irina was 17, she went to Dr. Levchenko. This lucky accident helped the girl literally escape the grave. Yevgeny Levchenko decided to have an operation. Removed 42 metastases from the patient's right lung, and a few months later 28 metastases from the left.
“Emotionally, this was perhaps the most difficult operation. Removal of metastases For thoracic surgeons, this is not a big problem. The problem is that there are still micrometastases. Then there will be a relapse. I've been operating on malignant tumors all my life. If a doctor tells me that he removed 42 metastases, I will definitely answer that there was a 43rd, which he did not find.
During the operation, the doctor used the chemoperfusion. The affected organ is disconnected from the general circulatory system and metastases are washed with a chemical preparation of a concentration that a person would not withstand if the drug circulated throughout the body.
For a successful innovative operation, Yevgeny Levchenko was awarded the Perelman Prize, which occupies an honorable place in the oncologist’s office. But the main award for the operation was not the doctor, but the patient. And that prize is life.
“At present, the girl is 26 years old, she does not receive treatment, is under the supervision of doctors and periodically undergoes examinations,” says Levchenko.
One day before the next scientific congress, Yevgeny Levchenko asked a happy patient to take a picture of his X-ray shot against the background of a window, so that his colleagues could show: “I am looking for the first time – a spoiled picture, something motley in the background.” I looked around, and there's a flowering apple orchard outside the window. I realized I was wrong. We look at patients in terms of images, but if you look at them, there's life behind them.
There is a Buddhist parable about a man who ran away from a tiger, ran to the edge of a cliff and saw another one below. He jumped and grabbed a bitch. The tree began to break. And suddenly he noticed the berry, reached out and ate it. The man felt that it was the most delicious berry in life. When we give a patient 6, 12 months, a year, 5 years, the taste of life is very different. Yevgeny Levchenko maintains his mental balance with the help of yoga and green tea.
“My advice is that green tea should be stored in the freezer as it continues to ferment. In order for it to preserve its taste, there should be no oxygen access, says Yevgeny Levchenko. But the surgeon’s main passion is his job.
“When I come to the surgery and stand at the table, time stops. When I finish, I wonder how much time has passed. One step after another, operation after operation. When ex-patients come in a few years, or a patient calls and says: “Today, 15 years since you operated on your dad, he asked to find you and say thank you very much, he is doing well,” – it gives strength, says the enthusiastic surgeon, and we can not hold back tears.
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