Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 1022: Chapter 1018: Addressing the Symptoms but Not the Root

Huo Sining had no idea about the situation outside. After changing into sterile clothing and entering the ward, she saw the sleeping Master Qin on the hospital bed. In just a few short months, Master Qin had greatly changed. His already white hair had turned entirely silver, his body had become emaciated and gaunt, his complexion was gray and haggard, and his lips were completely devoid of color. The entire person had been tormented by the illness to the point of losing all vigor and spirit.

Huo Sining thought back to when she first met the old man in Diecuiyuan. At that time, Master Qin was dressed in Tang attire, his eyes were lively and spirited. Even though he was elderly, his posture was still straight, clearly an optimistic and active old comrade.

Comparing now to the bedridden, dying old man, Huo Sining couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

Such a huge disparity happened in less than a few months, indicating how much suffering the old man had been through. Just to put his descendants at ease, he stubbornly endured on his own, refusing to make a sound even when the pain attacked.

Huo Sining couldn’t help but let out a long sigh, sitting gently on the caregiver’s chair beside the bed, reaching out to the old man’s abdomen.

With the Heavenly Eye activated, the situation within the old man’s abdominal cavity was fully revealed before Huo Sining’s eyes.

Huo Sining was not a professional in the medical field, so she couldn’t actually diagnose illnesses, but she could still identify some abnormal issues, especially since she already knew that Qin Lianshan was in the late stages of stomach cancer before she came. So she did some research on stomach cancer beforehand, and when she used the Heavenly Eye to peer into Qin Lianshan’s stomach and saw those abnormally shaped tumor giant cells, she almost instinctively frowned.

Stomach cancer ranks first in the incidence of malignant tumors in Huaxia Country. It typically occurs in people over 50 years old, with males having twice the incidence rate compared to females. The causes mainly include geographical or dietary factors, Helicobacter pylori infection, precancerous lesions, and genetic inheritance.

Master Qin’s condition was likely caused primarily by precancerous lesions, which can lead to cancer, and the severity is divided into light, moderate, and severe levels. Still, severe dysplasia, which is a symptom of cancer, is hard to distinguish in early-stage stomach cancer and only manifests in later stages.

This was why when Master Qin was diagnosed with stomach cancer, it was already in the late stage. There’s currently no truly curative treatment for this kind of disease, whether domestically or worldwide. The measures that can be taken are either surgery or chemotherapy.

The surgery involves completely removing the cancerous part and clearing the lymph nodes around the stomach while reconstructing the digestive tract; chemotherapy uses drugs to slow the tumor’s development and relieve symptoms to extend survival time, but both methods treat the symptoms, not the root cause, and cannot fundamentally solve the problem.

Cancer cells proliferate rapidly, and even if surgically removed, the likelihood of recurrence is significant. These methods cannot achieve a cure for patients, especially for elderly patients like Qin Lianshan, who fundamentally cannot undergo surgical removal.

Under the Heavenly Eye, Huo Sining could clearly see that Qin Lianshan’s stomach was swollen with cancer cells, forming many giant tumors. These tumors were malignant, had high metabolic rates, consumed the protein decomposition products needed by normal tissues, and pressed against stomach nerves and blood vessels, leading to ruptured blood vessels, which was why Qin Lianshan was vomiting blood.

In this situation, what Huo Sining could consider was how to remove these malignant tumors from Qin Lianshan’s stomach.

Huo Sining channeled the Spirit of Azure Pearl, attempting it slowly, because she didn’t know what consequences might arise once the spiritual energy detached these tumors from the stomach, she dared not act rashly, only cautiously probing little by little.

This attempt was successful. Once the spiritual energy entered the stomach, it acted like a sharp scalpel, trapping an malignant tumor in Qin Lianshan’s stomach, and then bit by bit detached the tumor cell mass from the stomach and quickly consumed it.

After doing all this, Huo Sining felt a fine layer of sweat seeping out from her back, and her tense nerves finally relaxed.

Unlike when Huo Sining treated Huang Chengyi and Lu Ruiqi before, though their conditions were also internal illnesses, their pathologies were relatively simple. Once a few key issues were resolved, the conditions could basically recover.

But Qin Lianshan’s illness was different. Cancer cells were not cells infected by bacteria; they had already undergone mutation at the genetic level, becoming more complex.

Cancer cells divide rapidly and have escaped body control, showing growth autonomy. During their growth, they easily detach, disintegrate, invade surrounding tissue, or enter blood and lymph tissue, spreading through blood and lymphatic circulation to other parts of the body, causing cancer dissemination and metastasis, posing threats to other body parts.

This was exactly what Huo Sining worried about. She could remove these tumors from Qin Lianshan’s stomach, but she couldn’t guarantee that all cancer cells could be killed; these uncontrolled cancer cells could still metastasize and expand.

The human body has about 60 trillion cells, and a cancerous tissue has tens of millions of cancerous cells. Even with the Heavenly Eye, Huo Sining couldn’t complete such an excessive amount of work, because even she didn’t know how many cancerous cells lurked in Qin Lianshan’s body, nor how many mutant cells had metastasized.

Furthermore, cancer cells could proliferate at any time. Even if she helped clean them up now, maybe at the next moment, other normal cells would become cancerous.

This was a never-ending vicious cycle. Without finding a fundamental cure, no matter how much effort was made, it would be in vain.

Huo Sining felt somewhat disheartened, but she was also very clear that Qin Lianshan’s body could no longer endure lengthy affliction. She could only temporarily use the spirit of Azure Pearl to help Qin Lianshan, temporarily clearing out the malignant tumors in his stomach before doing anything else.

Although this approach also treats the symptoms and not the root cause, it can at least help Qin Lianshan alleviate his condition, allowing him to temporarily regain some energy, to function like normal people, eating, drinking, excreting, and not letting the illness worsen so quickly, causing such immense suffering.

As for how to effectuate a radical cure, Huo Sining herself was rather bewildered. She could only shelve it for now and slowly figure out a way, yet there was always a heavy stone weighing in her heart because even she didn’t know whether Qin Lianshan could wait until that time.