Following Wednesday’s confirmation from Taipei Veterans General Hospital that Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) had lung cancer, doctors yesterday said they would refrain from commenting on the vice president’s prognosis for now, but said follow-up medical treatment would be the best way to avoid metastasis.
Hospital vice president Lee Chien-hsien (李建賢) told a press conference on Wednesday that the 70-year-old Siew was recovering from surgery that removed two tumors from his lung and that he had a 90 percent of chance of surviving the next five years. At the moment, no chemotherapy was needed, Lee said.
The two tumors were later confirmed to be “stage 1B” and “stage 3B” cancer and not 3A as reported by the Central News Agency.
PHOTO: CNA
Contacted by the Taipei Times for comment, Chuang Tsu-yi (莊子儀), a physician at Taoyuan General Hospital’s Department of Pulmonary Medicine, yesterday said: “With a lung cancer patient, chemotherapy should be carried out after surgery to avoid any potential metastasis.”
Yu Chung-jen (余忠仁), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Pulmonary Medicine, would not comment specifically on Siew’s case, but he also suggested further medical treatment.
“If chemotherapy is carried out, it will help reduce the chances of the cancer coming back by at least 30 percent,” Yu said.
Remarks made by the director of the thoracic surgery division at Veterans, Hsu Wen-hu (�?�), were similar to those of Yu, although he suggested no further steps be taken at the moment. Hsu is one of Siew’s doctors.
“Chemotherapy can help decrease the chances of the cancer returning by at least 30 percent. But such therapy is not necessary at the moment, as we did not find any evidence of metastasis,” Hsu said.
Changhua Christian Hospital’s Lung Cancer and Chest Therapy Center director Ho Ming-lin (何明霖) said Siew’s situation could be worse than his doctors indicated.
He said that he would usually try to reduce the size of a tumor using chemotherapy before removing it, if it is confirmed to be stage 3B.
“For a stage 3B case, the chances of it coming back after surgery are around 76 percent,” Ho said when contacted by the Taipei Times for comment. “When metastasis occurs, the brain, the liver and the bones will be the priority targets for the cancer to attack.”
Ho’s comments on the chances of metastasis for a stage 3B patient were shared by Taiwan Lung Cancer Society chairman Chen Chih-yi (陳志毅), who suggested Siew undergo chemotherapy.
Veterans’ Department of Pulmonary Medicine director Lee Yu-chin (李毓芹), however, said Siew’s situation was not as serious as Ho had said, although they had diagnosed one of the vice president’s tumors as stage 3B.
“The major tumor was about 3cm in size. But there were also two small white spots next to the tumor. If the spots were not there, it would have been diagnosed as somewhere between ‘Stage 1’ and ‘Stage 2,’” Lee said.
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