I am visiting Guangzhou as the guest of Dr. Si Yun Shu, Director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the First Military Medical University of China, in Guangzhou, and Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology. She is one of the leading neuroscientists in China, and has published both in western journals and in China. She is best known for her work on the centers of the brain responsible for memory.

In the morning she presented to me the state of her current research, including some fascinating new work on brain injury and memory.

In the afternoon she hosted a conference on VHL for faculty and medical students of the university, and physicians from the hospital. Dr. Kai-Tai Yao, a professor in the cancer center and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave an overview of VHL in Chinese, with slides in English, so I was able to follow his presentation well.

Then I gave my talk in English about VHL, the VHL Family Alliance, and the Kochi meeting. I talked about the various aspects of VHL and how doctors have been able to increase the rate of diagnosis in other parts of the world. If there is one case of VHL in 32,000 people, then there must be 30,000 people with VHL in China. The keys in other countries have been to raise consciousness among physicians of the various aspects of VHL, to suggest when to screen and do differential diagnosis for VHL, and then in addition to make information available to patients and physicians about how to manage one's health.

They liked my dandelion analogy (yes, there are dandelions in Japan and China!) and they also liked my analogy of VHL to diabetes - no cure for either, but with better management we can make a significant impact on people's lives and health. We also talked about the fact that the most significant strides in controlling cancer have been made not through cure, but through early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. That has been our focus for VHL in the past 11 years, and we are continuing on that course, hoping for some assistance from a drug, but not standing still while waiting.

They were very engaged and asked very good questions, and I felt quite encouraged. One doctor asked if there were a VHL Family Alliance chapter in China. I said not yet, but we are of course glad to work with a Chinese affiliate group. For example, there are currently discussion groups on the internet in five languages English, German, Spanish, French, and now Japanese and that a Chinese discussion group might be the first place to start. With such a large country and such a low rate of diagnosis at the moment, it will be hard to link people together across such distances. I am speaking to doctors in Guangzhou and Beijing, and there is some work also going on in Shanghai, so I would hope that there would be a support group in at least one of those places in the next 1-2 years.

Following the meeting Dr. Shu and her husband, Dr. Yao and his wife, and four other colleagues honored me with a sumptuous Chinese feast. I am assured on all sides that Cantonese food is the best in China. Guangzhou is the home of Cantonese food, and the people here are rightly proud of their cuisine. (Canton is the British name for Guangzhou, probably a corruption of Guangdong, which is the name of the province.)

Best regards,
Joyce

Read the other reports from Kochi, Japan and Beijing, China.

Dr. Yao

Dr. Yao

Dr. Shu in her lab

Dr. Shu in her lab