Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1051 - 862: Why Chili Peppers are Spicy_2

Chapter 1051: Chapter 862: Why Chili Peppers are Spicy_2

CA199 isn’t highly specific, and even if it increases, it doesn’t necessarily indicate something like pancreatic cancer.

For example, during a woman’s menstrual period, CA199 levels can rise. Yang Ping thought about this, and since there were no signs of a tumor from other tests, it was likely due to other reasons.

"What is the patient’s menstrual cycle like? Is it her period now?"

"About that, Doctor Chen didn’t pay much attention to the patient’s menstrual cycle." Dr. Li couldn’t answer immediately and leaned over to look through the medical records, where there was a section dedicated to recording menstrual history, but many doctors might not pay much attention to it.

Seeing the recorded menstrual history, Doctor Chen started to calculate the date of the next period.

"Why not just ask and know for sure, instead of sitting here guessing?" Director Fang was sharp-tongued but softhearted, and was straightforward in character, so he tended to scold people a bit.

However, his doctors were used to it. He might scold them, but he didn’t have any bad intentions and was actually very protective of his doctors.

Doctor Chen immediately ran to the ward to ask Pan Doudou about her menstrual history. After asking, he came back and said, "Indeed, it is; today is the second day, but the flow is very light."

"Given her current nutritional status, her menstrual flow is definitely scanty. Some patients in this nutritional state might even experience amenorrhea," Yang Ping deduced.

If that was the case, then the increase in the CA199 index was likely a response to her menstrual period, not a rise caused by a tumor, and it wouldn’t affect the upcoming surgery, thus Yang Ping was reassured.

Upon leaving the surgical building, just at the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping ran into Head Nurse Cai. The head nurse had twisted her ankle, even wore a cast, but being a workaholic, she refused to take a leave. Thus, she used crutches at work, which made commuting difficult. The doctors and nurses in the department were very busy; no one really wanted to help, except for Xia Shu, who was new and not as swamped.

Since Head Nurse lived in a community near the hospital, Xia Shu wheeled her to and from work every day.

Doctors Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had both examined Head Nurse’s injury, confirming it was serious, but said the cast would only be necessary for a few days. The crucial thing was that she had to use crutches for a month, with full recovery taking about three months.

If not for the head nurse’s generally strong constitution, her ankle would have swollen considerably, but currently, the swelling wasn’t very pronounced.

Head Nurse was quite worried, wondering what to do, as the department was so busy that taking a leave was hardly an option.

At that time, Yang Ping was in Beijing, and Song Zimo, who was acting as the head of the department, said it wasn’t a good time for a leave and hoped the head nurse would consider the greater good and continue working through her illness. However, they must arrange for someone to specifically handle her commute.

Song Zimo asked around, hoping to find a nurse to undertake this daunting task, but all shook their heads as they were too busy. These heartless people, at the crucial moment, all failed.

Having no other choice, Song Zimo had to say to Xia Shu, "Dr. Xia, I have to trouble you with this matter. Don’t worry, the department will remember your contribution."

Xia Shu said that it was easy, and not to talk about contributions. It was just a simple favor. Head Nurse lived across the street, and using a car would actually be less convenient. All he needed was a wheelchair to push her to and from work each day.

Song Zimo patted Xia Shu on the shoulder, "Dr. Xia, it is you who are truly conscientious. I, on behalf of the department, thank you."

So, Xia Shu began using a wheelchair every day to commute the head nurse to and from work. The wheelchair just coming from the ward area was a bit problematic, so Xia Shu went to an outpatient nurse and got a newer wheelchair.

After chatting with the head nurse for a few moments, Xia Shu had already brought out a wheelchair from the outpatient on the first floor. He immediately greeted Yang Ping when he saw him, "Professor, haven’t you left work yet?"

"I just went to General Surgery to see a patient. Now I’m heading back to my department to pick up my clothes and leave work," Yang Ping said.

Xia Shu was quite attentive, carefully helping the head nurse into the wheelchair and then bidding farewell to Yang Ping. He pushed the wheelchair vigorously towards the street where the head nurse lived.

Sometimes it’s really strange. Usually, the Head Nurse is that kind of career woman with a commanding presence, but now, though she only twisted her ankle, she’s acting delicately like a young girl.

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After returning to the department’s office, Yang Ping rested for a while, then he entered the System Space Laboratory to take a look.

The experiments in the System Space were still ongoing; they had changed since the system rules were upgraded.

According to the previous rules, when Yang Ping exited the System Space, everything inside would stop at that moment. When Yang Ping re-entered the space, the System Space would resume from the moment it stopped.

Now it was different; even when Yang Ping left the System Space, the experiments continued, and the progression of time inside accelerated at a much faster rate than in the real world.

Thus, the experiments in the System Space could be conducted parallel to Yang Ping’s real-world activities. This had its advantages and disadvantages—the advantage being that it saved time, but the disadvantage was that if an error occurred in the experiments while Yang Ping was away, it would continue erroneously. In short, there were both pros and cons.

This time, when Yang Ping entered the System Space, he found that in a cell library used for culturing tumor cells, the vast majority of the cells had already died.

That cell library was painstakingly established by Yang Ping and was used to observe the behavior of tumor cells during cell division. However, unexpectedly, so many had died without his notice, and currently, the rate of cell death was still accelerating, rendering the cell library almost unusable; he would need to start anew.

This situation resembled that of a breeder who, starting with just two pigs, managed to increase his herd to hundreds or thousands, but then one day, an outbreak of swine fever wiped out a large portion of his pigs. Yang Ping’s mood was similar to that of such a breeder at the moment.

Fortunately, as a precaution, Yang Ping had preserved some seed cells. Initially, these cells were taken from Sisi’s body, and all the tumor cells used in the laboratory were sourced from Sisi’s tumor cells.

This was just an accident. Yang Ping gazed at the cells and fell into deep thought, when suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind.

These were all tumor cells, and the sudden death of most of them was a setback for his stem cell research, but wasn’t it a good thing for tumor research?

Isn’t the ultimate goal of any tumor research to eradicate tumor cells? With this thought, Yang Ping immediately had a new idea.

These dead tumor cells were not useless waste, but treasures. It was an opportunity to establish a new project specifically to study the causes of these cells’ deaths, which might reveal new methods for treating tumors.

In the field of medicine, it is extremely difficult to thoroughly understand certain mechanisms—if one could genuinely make a breakthrough, it could be enough to challenge for a Nobel Prize.

One of the Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine studied why chili peppers are spicy. Why chili peppers are spicy is known to all, but understanding the mechanism behind this sensation from a scientific perspective is a difficult task.

Two American scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering why consuming chili peppers produces a sensation of spiciness. Imagine the scenario where foodies, who taste various flavors every day, would crowd the Nobel Prize podium!

Talking about it is easy, but doing it is not as simple.

These scientists studied deep, very deep aspects, deeper than cellular level—on a molecular level—they revealed why eating chili peppers affects the mouth and causes discomfort. It was not just about the spice, but also about the pain. They clearly explained the molecular mechanism of human pain sensation, thereby revealing the mechanism of pain signal transmission in humans, which earned them the Nobel Prize.

The death of a cell might seem like a simple matter, but at such a serious scientific level, it is far from simple.

Firstly, cell death can be divided into two categories, regulated death and accidental death, which are comparable to natural and accidental deaths in humans. Together, these two types of cell death comprise 11 different methods; some of these have Chinese translations, such as apoptosis, ferroptosis, and oxytosis, while some are only referred to by their English terms.

To study the causes of death of these tumor cells, it was first necessary to clarify which type of death they underwent, then to understand the reasons and the process of their death from a molecular level, and still more, to articulate these findings in the clear language of science.

Yang Ping felt that recycling waste in the System Space to set up a new project exploring the mechanisms of these cells’ deaths was the way forward.