"Since there is no other way, why not try a new therapy?" Wang said to his wife. Consequently, Wang decided to make an attempt to save the girl using the newly-developed therapy.

After receiving ATRA for three days, the little girl was pulled back from death. Her disease stopped worsening. One week later, she opened her eyes, and after one month her condition was much improved. It was a modern medical marvel—Wang's creative therapy had successfully cured an APL patient.

The girl has since grown up to become a healthy adult. She got married in 2011 and now serves as a researcher at an international pharmaceutical corporation.

The success of the new therapy also gave Wang a huge confidence boost. He immediately sent his students to search for APL patients at hospitals across Shanghai, requesting that these hospitals try his treatment method. In the same year, an additional 24 APL patients were effectively alleviated from the illness.

Wang's mission from then on was to promote the new medicine. However, because of its high complexity, many pharmaceutical factories were unwilling to produce the drug. As a result, Wang founded a workshop at the medical school to manufacture medicine.

Meanwhile, foreign hematology research institutions also began to make clinical tests using Wang's medicine. In the following two years, experts in France, Japan and the United States acknowledged the results. Judges of the Cancer Research Fund of General Motors Corp. awarded Wang the 1994 Charles F. Kettering Prize for Cancer Research, one of the top honors of its kind worldwide.

Wang has personally cured thousands of patients. About 85-90 percent of APL patients have been treated with ATRA therapy, which generates less adverse reactions, does not restrain hematopoiesis or cause hemorrhage. ATRA is also developed to be affordable medicine to cure APL cancer, which conforms to Wang's idea of reducing the economic burden on patients as much as possible.

"The medicine is cheap because I did not apply for a patent," Wang said. "In the 1980s, I didn't think about intellectual property rights; I just wanted more people to be saved by it."

"Some people may say I suffered a big loss from not patenting the medicine. But I am a doctor first—curing patients is my job."

Despite his huge success, Wang keeps a humble attitude. "I was lucky to find an effective medicine. For the past 40 years, I have been determined to cure blood cancer. As of now, I have only found the key to just one type of cancer. There are 20 kinds of blood cancer that are still incurable," Wang said.

Cultivating youth

In addition to medical research, Wang spends much of his time training young doctors. The current Chinese Minister of Health, Chen Zhu, is one of Wang's former students.

In 1978, Chen, 25, a village medical care worker at that time, went to the Ruijin Hospital for study and met Wang.

"I found this young man to be very hard-working and earnest in medical practice, though he only graduated from a vocational school," Wang said.

Chen took the graduate record examination and scored highest in the exam from a pool of 600 applicants and became Wang's student. In that year, Wang recruited only one other student—a female named Chen Saijuan. Later the two young students were married, and both have since made achievements in curing leukemia and in terms of hematology research. Today, Chen Zhu serves as the Minister of Health, and his wife is an academician of the CAE.

Wang is an inexhaustible mentor to his students. He prepares a discussion with his students every week. At the meeting, Wang's students and colleagues put forward newly-founded clinical problems, which Wang takes careful note of and researches further in the following days. No matter how busy he is, he does his best to answer their questions.

"My biggest wish is to pass on my knowledge to the younger generation. It would be my great pleasure to see them go on to accomplish even more," Wang said.

Who is Wang Zhenyi?

1924: Born in Xinghua County, Jiangsu Province

1948: Received Medical Doctorate from the Medical School, Aurora University, now the Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

1948-1982: Served as Director of Research Center of Medicine and Pathophysiology at Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Second Medical University

1994: Selected as academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering

1996-present: Tenured professor at the Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Doctoral Supervisor and hematologist

2012: Co-recipient with Chen Zhu, the Seventh Annual Szent-Györgyi Prize in the United States

Email us at: tangyuankai@bjreview.com