The collective cancer incident in the laboratory of the Second Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University may be a leak accident | Cancer | The Epoch Times

[The Epoch Times, November 12, 2023](Interview and report by Ning Xin, a reporter from the Epoch Times Special Topics Department) A number of graduate students in the Breast Surgery Department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, referred to as the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University) collectively contracted cancer, causing shock. The “cancer-promoting mechanism” of the laboratory research content was exposed. Professionals suspect it was a leak.

On the evening of November 6, a chat record about “students from the breast surgery team of Sun Yat-sen Second Hospital collectively contracted cancer” was posted on the Internet, which attracted attention and continued to ferment. The incident was questioned to be “caused by the influence of the experimental environment and reagents.”

In the early morning of November 8, the Second Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University issued a “Situation Statement” stating that among the staff who worked and studied in the hospital’s Breast Tumor Center Laboratory in recent years, three people including Huang have suffered from cancer, and no current students have contracted cancer; and They said lightly that “the current situation is stable” and “the recovery after surgery is good”.

Huang mentioned in the description studied for a doctoral degree in the hospital from 2017 to 2022, during which he studied in the laboratory of the Breast Tumor Center. After graduating from the Ph.D. in July 2022, he joined the Breast Surgery Department of the hospital and engaged in clinical work; in October 2023 Was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery.

Huang’s sister confirmed in an interview with mainland media on the 8th that the three patients in the notice were often engaged in experimental work. She also revealed that her sister’s condition is very serious. At present, the family does not want to get too involved in the details of the incident, but hopes to have the opportunity to save her sister’s life.

At the same time, it was reported on the Internet that the laboratory involved had been demolished, with pictures, but the hospital argued that it was a fire inspection.

The series of actions by the Second Institute of Sun Yat-sen University in the middle of the night to issue a statement and quickly dismantle the laboratory has made people more suspicious of the incident.

According to reports, the Cancer Center Laboratory of the Second Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University specializes in studying the “cancer-promoting mechanism” of tumors. At present, at least 6 people in the breast surgery department are suffering from cancer (2 are doctoral students, 1 is postdoctoral, and 3 are graduate students), all of which are rare cancers.

The “big boss” of the laboratory involved is Song Erwei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of the academy, and academic leader of the Department of Breast Oncology Medicine. The supervisor involved, Su Shicheng, was a student of Song Erwei, an assistant to the dean, a professor of breast surgery at the hospital, and a doctoral supervisor.

Reports on the research results of Professors Song Erwei and Su Shicheng’s team can be found on the official websites of Sun Yat-sen University and Sun Yat-sen Second Hospital. A report on November 19, 2022 was titled “Su Shicheng’s team reveals a new mechanism by which non-leukocytes express Fcγ receptors to mediate cancer-promoting signals”, which confirmed that the research content of this laboratory is related to the “cancer-promoting mechanism”.

Zhao Wenhao (pseudonym), who has engaged in pharmaceutical research in China, told The Epoch Times that he also spent time in a laboratory conducting clinical drug research and was well versed in the rules of the laboratory. He finally chose to change careers and is currently conducting cosmetics research and development in Guangzhou.

He said: “Basic research, drug clinical research, etc. are the hardest and dirtiest work in the laboratory. In the end, the results are still made for others, so most tutors will recruit students to do it. This incident at the Second Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University is a big deal. The probability should be a leak.”

He said that the “cancer-promoting mechanism” must first be modeled, injecting some drugs (chemical reagents) into the animals, or simulating a carcinogenic environment, and exposing them to various types of radiation, or environments under the influence of heavy metals and harmful gases. Animals develop cancer and are later studied for treatment.

“To test whether a drug is effective against a certain cancer, we first make experimental animals suffer from this cancer through various means. This process is called ‘modeling’. After the model is created, the experimental animals are then given drugs to treat it. At the same time, various related data are collected, and this process will involve animal blood tests and final animal dissection, which are all high-risk tasks,” he said.

“In order to ensure the success rate of modeling, highly carcinogenic conditions and environments will be used.” He said, “During the experiment, if management is not in place, protection is not good, or operation errors occur, reagents leak, or exposure to simulated environments It is very possible to cause accidents and cause cancer, and the probability is very high. In fact, the people involved in these experiments are at risk every minute!”

He also gave an example that breast cancer uses dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA, a toxic carcinogen) as an induction reagent, and different reagents are used for different disease types. “Doing basic research on drugs and pharmacology will inevitably involve such experiments, but most of them choose to use drugs to create models, so it is more likely to be done carelessly, causing leakage and pollution.”

“The research on cancer-promoting mechanisms is originally intended to create better models and serve the research and development of tumor drugs, but it is also a double-edged sword, depending on how the holder uses it. There are many toxic reagents in the laboratory.”

Current political commentator Tang Jingyuan also told reporters that the incident of collective cancer at the Second Hospital of Zhongshan was obviously an abnormal event. Officially, there were only three people admitted, but the actual number may be more. The fact that so many young people are suffering from cancer in one place is both homogeneous in space and contemporaneous in time. Obviously, it cannot be explained by natural coincidence.

He said: “This collective cancer cannot be ruled out to be related to the biochemical safety of the laboratory. If it is really related to certain experimental supplies, then it will not only involve one laboratory, but may involve many similar laboratories. There are serious biochemical safety hazards. This biochemical safety may be related to a certain reagent used in the experiment, or to a certain product produced by the experiment. It may be caused by a leak, or it may be a major omission in the design of a certain experimental program. What exactly is it? Which situation requires independent investigation and a clear explanation of the facts and evidence to know.”

He also said that the CCP’s scientific research system is under the leadership of the “party”, so political interference and political considerations always dominate. Once a safety accident or academic scandal occurs, the first thing to do is to block it and conceal the truth. This inertia is the root cause of the continuous occurrence of abnormal cancer cases in Sun Yat-sen Second Hospital, but the delay in attention and safety investigation.

Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#