A 47-year-old Turkish woman living and working in Southwest China’s Chongqing has made an extraordinary full recovery from aggressive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after receiving personalized, multidisciplinary care at a leading local public hospital, a case that showcases the high quality of China’s international medical services for foreign residents.
Going by the pseudonym Zeynep, the patient was first admitted to the Hematology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University on December 31, 2024, presenting with a severe case of the blood cancer marked by widespread lymph node involvement. Medical teams moved quickly to run diagnostic tests, confirming the diagnosis and flagging the urgent need for immediate therapeutic intervention. By the beginning of January 2025, Zeynep’s condition deteriorated rapidly, triggering life-threatening acute respiratory failure that required intensive care support.
Faced with the serious health crisis, Zeynep and her family initially planned to travel back to Turkiye to complete treatment, a common choice for many foreign expats facing major illness abroad. But after receiving positive feedback and endorsement of the Chongqing hospital’s proposed treatment plan from medical experts in Turkiye, the family chose to stay and proceed with care in China.
To deliver the best possible outcome for Zeynep, the hospital assembled a cross-departmental multidisciplinary treatment team drawing specialists from eight clinical and research units, including pathology, clinical molecular diagnosis, and critical care medicine. This collaborative approach allowed clinicians to address every complication of Zeynep’s case and adapt treatment to her specific health profile.
According to Zhang Hongbin, chief physician in the hospital’s Hematology Department and lead of Zeynep’s care team, clinicians implemented a customized first-line regimen called Pola R-CHP, which integrates multiple targeted cancer therapies. Unlike standard treatment protocols, this personalized approach is designed to boost long-term survival outcomes for patients with high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Zhang explained that the tailored therapy is projected to raise the patient’s five-year survival rate from the 60 percent average associated with traditional regimens to 80 percent. After weeks of coordinated care, Zeynep achieved a remarkable recovery that has been hailed as a testament to China’s advancing precision oncology capabilities and patient-centered care for international residents.