Help Chinese Women Keep Cervical Cancer at Bay

English translation

A decent job with handsome salary and compensation is the goal of most ordinary people. However, to high level experts, their pursuits go far beyond a decent and well-paying job.

When they reach certain living standards, they will quit their jobs and go to poverty-stricken areas or the third world countries, to serve the local people, thus realizing their own worth. They believe it’s the true meaning of personal success, and it’s the kind of life they want.

And Dr. Jerome Belinson is one of them.

Jerome Belinson, President of POI, Professor of Gynecology, and former consultant to the Bill Gates Foundation “START Project Through The Program For Appropriate Technology In Health(PATH)”, to relieve the numerous patients in developing countries from pain, Dr. Belinson retired two years ahead of schedule and gave up his superior position, to explore for feasible ways for cervical screening in China, India, and Mexico. Dr. Belinson and his team’s researches have brought good news to countless patients.

Recently, their researches have made important breakthroughs. According to their design, in the future, women will be able to do self sampling for cervical cancer as easy as doing an early pregnancy test. The procedures are as follows: After a woman does her self sampling,she will send the sample to a hospital, to be tested for the possibility of cervical cancer. Women are spared of the original complex processes. Meanwhile, doctors do not have to spend a tremendous amount of time collecting samples. They can focus on the treatment for patients. Such a model (self-sampling) makes it possible to conduct cervical cancer screening in remote rural areas, and breaks new ground for global cervical cancer treatment.

The design for this solution has been completed. Fund-raising has accumulated half of the targeted amount. What needs to be done next is to raise the remaining half, through the concerted efforts of parties involved, so that the 10,000 experimental screening and the improvement of the designed plan can be funded. When a plan has been finalized, further steps will be taken for implementation.

Dr. Belinson says, “We believe that when we say “Our technology advantages are prominent and feasible.It’s time that we found a way to apply the technology to more people. Now is the time to do that.”

Seeking Partnership. Breaking New Ground In China

Dr. Belinson’s friendship with China dates back to many years ago.

In 1996, Dr. Belinson learned through a report that the prevalence and mortality rate of women with cervical cancer is 10-20 times than in developed countries. As a gynecologic oncology expert, Dr. Belinson knows that such high prevalence of cervical cancer, means in China, a country with over one billion people, there’re 130,000 women who have cervical cancer. Every year, 20,000-30,000 women will die of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer can be prevented by having regular screening and an early diagnosis. Such amazing data left an impression on Dr. Belinson. As a renowned gynecologic oncology expert, Dr. Belinson decided to utilize his influence in gynecologic oncology to promote cervical cancer screening in China and to contribute to lowering the prevalence of cervical cancer and mortality rate of Chinese women who have cervical cancer. In 1998, Dr. Belinson came to China and started a 12-year journey for cervical cancer prevention, treatment and research in China.

Dr. Belinson’s research is focused on the new technologies of preventing cervical cancer, and aims at providing feasible screening methods in the poorer countries and regions, and providing cervical cancer screening to women who have never had the opportunity for screening before.

Dr. Belinson believes that poor and less developed regions have a higher prevalence of cervical cancer. Regions with high prevalence of cervical cancer need cervical cancer screening the most, and can work as a pilot project for screening all over China. With that in mind, Dr. Belinson started to seek co-operation opportunities with Chinese experts.

At that time, researcher Qiao Youlin from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences co-operated with American researches on esophagus cancer and lung cancer. After two years’ preparation and planning, Dr. Belinson came to China for the first time, and started co-operation with Qiao Youlin on cervical cancer prevention and treatment in China. With the funding raised by Dr. Belinson from the international community, Dr. Belinson and Qiao Youlin used international state-of-the-art technologies to conduct “Cervical Cancer Screening” for a great number of women, which set the precedent of using advanced technology for cervical cancer screening in China.

After many years’ efforts, the situation regarding cervical cancer in China has improved. Currently, in the urban areas of China, the prevalence rate and death rate of cervical cancer are quite close to those in the US. However, the prevalence rate and death rate of cervical cancer are still very high in the rural areas of China. Women living in the villages of China and India account for a large portion of the prevalence and death cases of cervical cancer of the world.

Given the circumstances, Dr. Belinson resolved to develop an easy and practical technology, for cervical cancer screening in the poverty-stricken and less developed regions.

Founding POI

To seek an economical and effective screening solution for cervical cancer, which will provide women in poverty-stricken areas access to timely screening, Dr. Belinson and his colleagues have conducted a tremendous amount of exhaustive research on the sensitivity and differentiation of various screening technologies. To advance the research, Dr. Belinson joined hands with world renowned experts in multiple disciplines and built a specialized organization – POI (Preventive Oncology International, POI). The mission of POI is to conduct cervical cancer prevention and treatment researches aimed at developing countries, and to meet the humanitarian needs of cervical cancer prevention and treatment.

After the establishment of POI, POI has completed 12 major cervical cancer screening projects in China. The screening subjects came from unscreened women in poverty-stricken areas and the poor areas in cities.

In 2007, Dr. Belinson got to know a Chinese gynecology expert Dr. Wu Ruifang, who commented, “He’s an extraordinary leader in the cervical cancer prevention initiatives in China. And he’s also the only person I know who sleeps less than me.”

For the project with Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, POI, headed by Dr. Belinson, invested 3.5 million USD for project funding, and 1.5 million USD for equipments and materials. More than 32,000 women participated directly in the project screening, about 150,000 people benefited from the project indirectly. In addition, Dr. Belinson trained and nurtured a highly capable team of researchers for cervical cancer prevention and treatment in Shenzhen. More than 100 researchers were trained by him directly. During the project with Oncology Hospital of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Belinson personally treated 970 women.

“Chinese samples tested in China”

Dr. Belinson adheres to the principle of “testing Chinese samples in China”, which results in the introduction of various international advanced testing technologies for cervical cancer to China.
Dr. Belinson’s work in China has always emphasized mass screening, so that more people can benefit. Besides, definite goals are set, to stay alert to the pathological changes and canceration before the cervical cancer, and to save more lives. Meanwhile, he came up with a simple and easy-to-implement treatment solution for pathological changes before the cervical cancer, enabling the patients to get treatment more easily. For all projects, Dr. Belinson was the project manager and principal technical expert, and he devised project implementation plans for each project. During the implementation of each project, he visited the project location and trained staff in person. He also managed project procedures, sampling and data processing directly, to ensure the scientific value and accuracy of the research results.

Economical and not wasteful.

To ensure that the raised fund is used on the Chinese women in need, Dr. Belinson has always been economical and does not allow waste or unreasonable expenses.

Ever since the project was started in China, Dr. Belinson has always adhered to the principle of “lowering costs to the largest extent, and spending every penny on the people in need.”, a principle he set forth when he founded POI. Dr. Belinson practices what he preaches, and has high standards for himself. He has always traveled economy class on international flights and does not waste money on traveling. His work schedule is always full. Each long haul flight makes him very tired, but he works indefatigably so that more women in poor areas can have access to cervical cancer screening.

During a project in Guizhou, Dr. Belinson injured his back because of long distance traveling. To get to five screening locations, he still had to surmount a couple of mountains. And the roads were extremely bumpy. The project members saw his pain and wanted to hire a taxi for him, he refused adamantly. He insisted on traveling together with other project members on the bus. At each screening location, no matter how harsh the conditions were, Dr. Belinson stayed in the same hotel and ate the same food as other project members, and has never asked for any special treatment. What he did touched the project members and many local women who participated in the project.

Dr. Belinson awarded the 2010 “China Friendship Award” by the Chinese government.

In September 2010, Dr. Belinson was awarded the highest honor for foreign experts -”China Friendship Award” by the Chinese government. In his award-receiving speech, he thanked Chen Yun, Wu Ruifang, Cai Zhiming, Qu Xinfeng, Yang Bin, Qiao Youlin and other Chinese friends who have worked with him. He said,”Winning the China Friendship Award” is a recognition of POI and the work done by all of my Chinese colleagues. The significance of our work is not limited to implementing the project itself. Personally, I sincerely hope that the award will attract more attention from all walks of life to the significance of our work, and attract various forms of support that we need to implement prevention and treatment for cervical cancer, including charity donations and project funding support.”

He suggested that, to better support foreign experts, China make public the fields and circumstances in which foreign experts will receive support from the Chinese government. In this way, foreign experts will know, under what circumstances, they can use government support to realize their objectives. For example, if air pollution is pressing issue in China, the government can post the information on the Internet, to seek help from foreign experts. When foreign experts see the information, they can contact relevant authorities, and present their solutions and plans, which will be evaluated by relevant authorities based on China’s needs. Problem solving is accelerated in this way. In this way, the government can go beyond giving out awards to achievements. Instead, the government gives support to the project from the beginning, which is undoubtedly a good model for co-operation.

In closing, he said, “Although I have worked full-time in gynecologic oncology treatment and research for more than 30 years, my work in the Chinese areas that have shortage of medical resources are the highlight of my career. I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my heart-felt thanks to my colleagues at Cleveland Clinic and partners, who have always supported my notion of “global community” and provided me support whenever I needed it, and left comfortable working conditions behind to work with me side by side, and helped me with their excellent expertise and experience.”