On December 6, 2019, Comrade Lu Shixin, a famous pathophysiologist in China, a member of the Communist Party of China, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the former director of the Institute of Oncology of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and a researcher of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences passed away in Beijing at the age of 90.
Academician Lu Shixin.
In the past 90 years, scientific research has accompanied Lu Shixin through different stages of life. On this road, he carried the soil on his feet, cared about the people, focused on the frontier of science, closely combined his life's energy with the health of the people, and dug a "red flag canal" flowing with boiling water for the cause of cancer prevention and treatment in my country on the land he loved. He has been engaged in the research of oncology, chemical carcinogenesis and carcinogenesis mechanism for a long time, and has made many pioneering research results, and is one of the pioneers of molecular oncology in China.
Burning the country: the original intention of the first generation of international students in New China
On December 12, 1929, Lu Shixin was born in an ordinary working family in Shanghai, and his ancestral home was Yancheng, Jiangsu. When he was only 10 months old, his father died of illness, and his mother struggled to support the family alone. Due to financial constraints, Lu Shixin did not start school until he was 9 years old, and then relied on the savings of his family and the wages earned by his two older sisters to complete his junior high school and high school studies intermittently.
At the end of 1950, Lu Shixin graduated from Fudan High School in Shanghai with excellent grades and chose to apply for Dalian Medical College. At the time of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Dalian was located not far from North Korea, and the entire northeast region was not the best choice for both security and teaching conditions. As the youngest child in the family, his mother and older siblings did not agree with Lu Shixin to go to Dalian Medical College to study Xi due to safety concerns. However, Lu Shixin, who was 21 years old at the time, was full of patriotic enthusiasm and firmly wanted to go to the place where the motherland needed it, and the difficult conditions could not stop the enthusiasm of a teenager. Lu Shixin tried all kinds of methods to communicate patiently with his family, and at his insistence, he finally obtained the consent of his mother and brother and sister. During his five and a half years of Xi at Dalian Medical College, although the conditions were difficult, he relied on his tenacity and perseverance, worked diligently, studied hard, defy difficulties, and actively demanded progress politically. In 1956, after graduating with honors, Lu Shixin was selected by the state to study Xi Romania.
Academician Lu Shixin's early study abroad work photo (right).
At the end of August 1956, Lu Shixin arrived in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, and entered the Bucharest Medical College for graduate studies, under the supervision of the famous endocrinologist and academician of the Romanian Academy of SciencesMilcu, specializing in the relationship between hormones and tumors. After more than 4 years of hard work, he successfully completed his studies and obtained a postdoctoral degree.
After completing his studies, Lu Shixin resolutely returned to the motherland in March 1961 and devoted himself to the construction of the motherland's health undertakings in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The mystery of esophageal cancer in Linxian County has been solved, and the incidence rate has dropped by 50%.
After returning to China, Lu Shixin was assigned to the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He moved to Jianyang, Sichuan Province with the Institute of Experimental Medicine. At that time, the prime minister has always been concerned about the development of China's oncology research, following the instructions that cancer is a common, frequent and endemic disease, and the cancer hospital should solve this problem and serve the vast number of workers, peasants and soldiers", and some of the backbone of scientific research and medical business delegated by the Academy of Medical Sciences were transferred to the Institute of Cancer (Hospital) of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. It was at that time that Lu Shixin returned to Beijing, took root at the grassroots level, and formed an indissoluble bond with Linxian (now Linzhou City, Henan Province).
At that time, China was the world's highest-incidence area of esophageal cancer, with an average of more than 150,000 deaths per year, which was 1 3 of the world's esophageal cancer deaths. It is especially serious in Linxian County, where the morbidity and mortality rate has been maintained at more than 100.1 million for a long time, with an average of thousands of morbidity and mortality per year. In 1957, the secretary of the county party committee of Linxian County reported to his superiors that there were "three nos" in Linxian County: no water, no roads, and no esophagus.
Lu Shixin (second from right) at work in Lin County, Henan Province.
The people of Linxian County dug the famous Hongqi Canal, which solved the problem of impassable water, and also solved the problem of impassable roads through struggle. To solve the problem of "esophageal blockage", we not only need elite soldiers, but also skilled craftsmen. In 1971, Lu Shixin came to Linxian with the medical team of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and served as the deputy leader of the medical team, responsible for the basic research of esophageal cancer in Linxian County. Lu Shixin has eaten, lived and worked with the people of Linxian County, engaged in overloaded and arduous research work for 15 years, overcame many hardships, and obtained a large number of breakthrough research results.
Many participants recalled that the conditions of the study at that time were difficult to imagine in modern times. Lu Shixin first participated in the construction of the laboratory building of Yaocun Commune in Linxian County, and then organized the transformation of the guest room compound of the county hospital into a laboratory, and built a new animal room, which created the basic conditions for research at that time. Most of the important results of China's first esophageal cancer cell line and esophageal cancer research came from these humble laboratories.
Lu Shixin traveled all over the mountains and rivers of Linxian County, leaving his traces everywhere. In order to study the causes of esophageal cancer in Linxian County, it is necessary to understand whether there are carcinogenic factors in the human environment in and outside the body. He visited a total of 494 wells of households in Yao Village Commune, Linxian County, numbered and took water samplesHundreds of people's saliva, gastric juice and urine, as well as various grains, sauerkraut and other samples were collected for repeated experiments, exploration, derivation and demonstration, and finally found that nitrosamines and their precursors were present in these samples, and the content was higher than that in the low-incidence areaMost importantly, a specific nitrosamine that can cause esophageal cancer in animals, methylbenzylnitrosamine, was also found in sauerkraut and gastric juice, and it was finally proved that methylbenzylnitrosamine is the main factor that induces human esophageal epithelial cancer.
The culprit has been found, and it must be proved that nitrosamines can be synthesized in the human body. He took the slaughterhouse as a laboratory, the working environment was dirty and smelly, the pigs used for the experiment were first encircled, fed nitrite and methylbenzylamine were injected into different parts of the nest, killed the pig in 2 hours, took out the pig stomach, brought back to the laboratory, and took out the contents of the pig stomach through chemical extraction analysis to prove that the pig can synthesize methylbenzylnitrosamine, which provides an experimental basis for the synthesis of nitrosamine in the human body. Colleagues recall that these groundbreaking studies systematically identified nitrosamines** in esophageal cancer, and also showed that the development of esophageal cancer in Linxian people is closely related to their environment. Lu Shixin has stepped onto the international stage with his research findings in Linxian County, and has made academic presentations at many major international conferences, and has published them in internationally renowned important journals, such as cancer res, pans., j. nat. cancer.INST et al. The discovery of methylbenzylnitrosamine-induced human esophageal epithelial carcinoma is a major breakthrough in the world's esophageal cancer research, which has attracted wide attention from the international academic community and is an important milestone in Chinese oncology in the world.
To judge a scientist's achievements, we should not only look at the number of publications, but also look at what problems he has solved, and scientific research should be combined with practice. This is what Lu Shixin often says. In order to implement the policy of "prevention first", he actively participated in the formulation of esophageal cancer prevention measures based on the results of his research work in Esophageal Cancer in Linxian County. After active deliberation and repeated discussions, five anti-cancer measures for esophageal cancer were proposed: "anti-mildew, de-amine, treatment of proliferation, application of molybdenum fertilizer and reform of bad lifestyle Xi habits". Since 1972, after the formulation of five comprehensive prevention countermeasures and measures for esophageal cancer, the research plan for the prevention of esophageal cancer at all levels in Linxian County has been incorporated into the local economic and social development plan, listed as a key task of health work, and combined with the rural patriotic health campaign. He is also actively involved in the popularization and education of the five cancer prevention measures, and often goes to various production teams and schools to explain the significance and implementation methods of the five cancer prevention measures for esophageal cancer.
The seeds sown by Lu Shixin bore healthy fruits. Decades of prevention practice have proved that the exposure level of carcinogenic nitrosamines and mycotoxins in the body of residents in Linzhou City has decreased significantly, the risk factors of personal behavior and environmental cancer promotion have been significantly reduced, and the nutritional protection factors have increased significantly, while the incidence of esophageal cancer among residents in high-incidence areas has decreased by about 50%.
The research practice of esophageal cancer prevention in Linxian County has provided new ideas, approaches, methods and experiences for the study and exploration of the innovative road of cancer prevention in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the relevant practices have also been promoted to the whole country. Lu Shixin has always maintained close ties with Lin County, and whenever the people of Henan have any needs, he does his best to help, and he often says: "I have feelings for Henan." ”
Scientific innovation: the integration of theory and practice to contribute to the prosperity of the country
After returning to Beijing from Linxian County, Lu Shixin often told the students that medical scientific research should combine theory and practice, innovation is the soul of scientific research, and scientific research should meet the needs of the country and play a supporting role in the country's economic development.
Lu Shixin has successively served as the director of the Institute of Oncology of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the director of the China Cooperative Research Center for Oncology of the World Health Organization (WHO), the vice chairman and executive director of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, the chairman and honorary chairman of the Oncology Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, and the chairman of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Cancer Research Association.
During his tenure as the director of the Institute of Oncology of the Cancer Hospital, he never gave up scientific research, and successively undertook the national "Sixth Five-Year Plan" and "Seventh Five-Year Plan" public relations projects and Sino-US cooperation projects. During his tenure as the director of the hospital, he had to undertake heavy scientific research tasks and manage a hospital with 1,300 people, and he must work in the office until late at night every day, without holidays, day and night. Although the body is tired, the mood is happy and full of energy. This period was also the first period of his scientific research work, and many groundbreaking scientific research results were completed at that time.
In order to improve the specific molecular mechanism of the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer, in the late 80s and early 90s of the last century, the scientific research team led by Lu Shixin carried out a lot of cooperation with scientific research units in the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other countries. For the first time, it was reported that the gene amplification and high expression of Cyclin D1, a key protein in cell cycle regulation, were reported in human esophageal cancer tissues, and it was confirmed that defects in the important pathways of cell cycle regulation of Cyclin D1 CDK4 6 RB p16 G1 were involved in the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer. These studies were ranked by Science magazine in 1995 as the top five most cited by Chinese research institutions when it first introduced the current state of scientific development in China, and in 1993 with the participation of Chinese scientific research institutions**. The research group led by him has carried out systematic research on nitrosamines in esophageal cancer, from the chemical analysis of environmental carcinogenic factors to the synthesis in vivo and in vitro to induce tumorigenesis in animals, and established the world's first experimental animal model of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and carried out research on tumor chemoprevention on this basis. Then, four new genes related to esophageal cancer were cloned from human esophageal cancer tissues in Linxian County for the first time by gene difference display method, named esophageal cancer-related genes 1-4 (ECRG1-4), which were registered in Genbank and systematically studied. The research fields involved are both systematic and extensive, and he has obtained a number of patents at home and abroad, and published more than 140 academic papers. To this day, scientists from countries such as the United States, Germany, and India have followed them to study the ECRG-2 gene and have published related **. This is extremely rare in the country. At the same time, it also shows its leading academic position in this field.
Lu Shixin's rich research results have laid a solid theoretical foundation for the prevention and treatment of international clinical esophageal cancer. In 1997, Lu Shixin was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and continued to insist on scientific research.
Scientific insight: leading the frontier of cancer stem cell research in China
Youth fades, but the spirit of persistent scientific research and exploration is always vivid, which is the impression left by Lu Shixin. Lu Shixin, who has devoted his life to scientific research, has accumulated a lot of scientific research experience, and his keen thinking makes many young people sigh to themselves. As early as 2003, he proposed that China should carry out research on cancer stem cells and the importance of cancer stem cells in the development of tumors. Cancer stem cells are an important source of malignant tumors** and metastasis, and controlling cancer stem cells can control the occurrence and development of tumors. In the case that few people in China have carried out this research, he tried his best to collect information, made slides, explained the importance of cancer stem cell research on many occasions, and personally visited relevant experts and institutions at the age of 75, and finally received attention and support, and presided over the first domestic cancer stem cell academic conference, which pioneered the promotion of cancer stem cell research in China.
Academician Lu Shixin adheres to the scientific concept of innovation and development and win-win cooperation, and cooperates with other research groups to publish 2 articles related to cancer stem cells in the journals "Cancer Research" and "STEM Cell & Development", isolating and identifying cancer stem cells in esophageal cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is the first time in China that cancer stem cells have been published internationally. Subsequently, his research group also published research on the mechanism of drug resistance of esophageal cancer stem cells and how to intervene in esophageal cancer stem cells**. At the same time, he presided over the "First International Conference on Cancer Stem Cells", where 132 authoritative experts from home and abroad participated in academic exchanges, covering brain tumors, breast tumors, hematological tumors and other fields, as well as the most cutting-edge tumor concepts and detection technologies. Many people say that through this academic exchange, they really understand what cancer stem cells are. This cancer stem cell conference not only promoted the exchange of domestic scholars, but also provided a channel for international cooperation and promoted the development of cancer stem cell research in China. In order to popularize the knowledge of cancer stem cells, Lu Shixin organized the second International Conference on Cancer Stem Cells and compiled two books, "Stem Cells and Tumor" and "Theory and Application of Cancer Stem Cells". His efforts have pioneered cancer stem cell research and the development of this field in China, opening up new avenues for oncology research and targeting.
Mentor model: noble character, leading more than 60 masters and doctors to thrive
Academician Lu Shixin and students (second from right).
Teachers, preaching, teaching, and dispelling doubts", this is the noble character that an excellent teacher who was incisive and concise by the ancients should have. Lu Shixin is engaged in scientific research at the same time, but also for the country to cultivate a large number of talents, in teaching and educating people, he is like a kind elder, approachable, words and deeds, conscientious, according to the characteristics and shortcomings of each student, targeted guidance, step by step, give full play to the student's strengths.
Over the years, he has trained more than 60 master's and doctoral students, and now they have become leaders and backbones in the professional field. Until the age of nearly 90, Academician Lu Shixin has been advocating and calling for social welfare to help young scholars carry out scientific research and innovation. The students recalled that Lu Shixin was a person who regarded scientific research as his life, and his scientific research achievements were obvious to all, and he had the excellent qualities of the older generation of scientists in China.
Academician Lu Shixin loved the motherland all his life, was low-key and humble, pursued scientific truth, and was upright and clean-hearted. His rigorous and realistic academic style, positive and selfless work spirit, persistent and dedicated scientific research pursuit, noble and elegant scholarly demeanor, generous and benevolent personality charm and upright attitude are examples Xi for us to learn and follow for life.