Zhongshan Second Hospital Cancer Controversy: 127 People at This High School Once collectively Suffered from Cancer!

Recently, the incident of students in the laboratory of the Breast Cancer Research Center at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, also known as Zhongshan Second Hospital, in Guangzhou, Guangdong, has caused a sensation.

On November 8th, Zhongshan Second Hospital issued a statement stating that in recent years, among the personnel who have worked or studied in the Breast Tumor Center laboratory, three people have been diagnosed with cancer. The hospital sincerely welcomes relevant departments to organize a third-party organization to conduct an assessment and investigation.

There has been no progress in this matter. According to a report from "China Philanthropist" magazine on November 13th, Su Shicheng, the mentor of the student with cancer and the deputy director of the Breast Tumor Center at the hospital, said in an interview on the 10th: "Please be patient and wait for the investigation results. I am currently unable to comment. The media's patience is my greatest help because the official release from the investigation team is the most authoritative answer. Please rest assured that there will be a correct answer."

It has been more than ten days since the interview with mentor Su Shicheng, and we do not yet know the results of the investigation. Currently, there is no evidence showing a direct causal relationship between the three students at Zhongshan Second Hospital and the laboratory.

From the pathology diagnosis report screenshots of the three students with cancer circulating on the current internet, two of the three new cancer cases are of the SMARCB1/INI1 deletion type tumor, which is extremely rare.

Science writer Zhuang Shili and others pointed out in a blog post: "Proving the causal relationship between cancer and experiments is very difficult. Most people get cancer mainly due to bad luck. However, if it is ultimately confirmed that there are indeed multiple non-high-risk age group individuals with cancer in the same unit in a short period, environmental factors should be considered. Environmental factors do not necessarily directly cause cancer, but the purpose of investigation is to eliminate risks and protect other healthy populations."

In fact, just last year, the United States also exposed a much larger-scale and all-brain-tumor "collective cancer" news.

Environmental scientist Lupiano, after being diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called acoustic neuroma (AN) at the age of 27 in 1999, discovered a total of 127 former students or staff at Colonia High School in Woodbridge, New Jersey, over more than 20 years, who also had rare cancers or tumors.

In 1999, Lupiano, then 27, was diagnosed with a "very rare" unusually large brain tumor called acoustic neuroma (AN). According to the Mayo Clinic, this tumor is benign, but treatment may cause hearing loss, balance difficulties, and other serious symptoms.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the probability of a person developing acoustic neuroma is about one in a hundred thousand. Although not technically cancer, if not treated promptly, these brain tumors will grow and threaten life.

In August of last year, his sister Angela DeCillis was diagnosed with a primary brain tumor, unfortunately, a highly malignant grade IV glioblastoma, with an incidence rate of 30 people per million.

Unluckily, two hours after receiving this bad news, the family received news that Lupiano's wife, Michelle, also had the same acoustic neuroma as him. The tumor was similarly very large (3.0 cm), and the tumors of the three individuals were all on the left side.

Lupiano eventually discovered a common factor among himself, his wife, and his sister: they all attended Colonia High School in Woodbridge in the 1990s. However, he was initially unsure if this high school was related to similar but rare brain tumor cases, until his 44-year-old sister unfortunately died of glioblastoma on February 17, 2022.

The pain prompted him to post on Facebook on March 7, 2022, urging all Colonia High School alumni to inquire if anyone had brain tumors, emphasizing his particular focus on those who graduated or attended from 1975 to 1995.

He initially thought he might receive very few cases, and even thought many people would accuse him of paranoia, but in the end, he received letters from over 100 alumni and staff who were diagnosed with rare tumors and cancers.

Lupiano previously revealed to the media that the school was less than 20 kilometers away from a uranium mine factory, which processed, packaged, and transported uranium ore during the Manhattan Project.

When everyone thought that the collective cancer event must be related to the factory, the investigation results surprised people.

New Jersey's Environmental Protection Agency also conducted an investigation. The results showed that there were no problems with the groundwater used by the local water plant, and there were no violations of relevant regulations on radioactive pollutants. They also announced at a press conference that there would be no further investigation...

Although the final investigation results of the Zhongshan Second Hospital student cancer event may be difficult to confirm, laboratory safety has always been a key issue.

In 2021, ScienceNet reported citing Tian Zhigang, a member of the Ministry of Education's laboratory safety inspection team and the director of the Asset and Laboratory Management Department of China University of Mining Technology (Beijing). According to his incomplete statistics, there were 113 publicly reported laboratory safety accidents at national universities from 2001 to 2020, resulting in 99 casualties.

Tian Zhigang further analyzed the 113 safety incidents: fires and explosion accidents accounted for 80%, and poisoning, electric shock, mechanical injuries, and other accidents accounted for 20%; accidents related to the use, storage, and disposal of chemical reagents accounted for nearly 50%; improper storage of reagents, violations of operations, and improper waste disposal accounted for 62%.

The two biggest problems with laboratory safety hazards are: the hardware equipment of the laboratory and the operating norms and awareness of laboratory personnel.

Whether it is a university or a research institute, funds are limited, and the space that can be provided is also limited, so most laboratories in the country do not have independent rest areas, which means that the experimental area and the rest area are together.

Take reagents as an example. Some reagents have limited purity and may contain highly toxic impurities during synthesis. However, in fact, there are alternative solutions with low toxicity but more expensive, but the price may be 80% higher. For laboratories with insufficient funds, the former is often considered.

Other hardware equipment such as fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, etc., are also the same. They often cannot guarantee normal use.

As for the operating norms of laboratory personnel, although they must pass laboratory safety training exams before entering the laboratory, those who have passed the exams know the "tricks."

And in the laboratory, experiments are generally carried out by senior brothers and sisters, and if the safety awareness and operations of senior brothers and sisters are not very strong and standardized, then the operating norms and safety awareness of the entire laboratory will become weaker and weaker.

Eating instant noodles, drinking water, casually placing gloves, etc., are common scenes in the laboratory.

In summary, whether it is a research institute or a university, it should provide a safe and standardized laboratory environment for students or staff, and strengthen the construction of laboratory hardware facilities. In the balance between safety and funds, safety should not be the last consideration.

And laboratory personnel should strengthen their awareness of self-protection, standardize experimental operations, to avoid the occurrence of some laboratory tragedies, and jointly create a safer research environment.

Reference

[1]https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25316942 [2]https://people.com/health/94-people-from-n-j-high-school-developed-brain-tumors-and-no-one-knows-why/ [3]https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0K0gjk_738Oclva_JDBKLQ [4]https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2022/04/26/cancer-cluster