HKU Bulletin May 2008 (Vol. 9 No. 2)

RESEARCH Putting an End to a Silent Killer A team of medical scientists is hoping to combat one of China’s biggest killers – stomach cancer – with a broad and far-reaching screening programme. S tomach cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in China’s Fujian Province and the nation’s second biggest cancer killer. Thought largely to be triggered by the bacteria helicobacter pylori (which also cause stomach and duodenal ulcers), Professor Benjamin Wong Chun Yu, Simon K.Y. Lee Professor in Gastroenterology, has discovered that treating the bacteria with antibiotics can significantly reduce the cancer’s occurrence. Wong, a specialist in gastroenterology and hepatology in the Department of Medicine, explained: “The relation is like that between smoking and lung cancer. We know that smoking causes lung cancer but if you stop smoking, does it help? Similarly, we know these bacteria are present silently in the stomachs of half the world population. Back in 1994 we wanted to know if treatment of the bacteria could actually reduce the risk of stomach cancer in someone who has been carrying these bacteria for decades without knowing it.” To answer the question Wong began a research project in Fujian Province. “We couldn’t do it in Hong Kong because, by then, Hong Kong was already quite affluent with a relatively low incidence and stomach cancer is associated with poor living environment in poor countries,” he said. “The bacteria are more common in places of poor hygiene and poor socio-economic areas. People at risk are probably eating foods that may be rotten, overcooked, preserved, articifially coloured or highly salted, all of which are bad for the stomach. So it is very high in countries like Korea and Japan and a lot of northern and eastern European countries.” In the summer of 1994 Wong and his team spent one month conducting endoscopies on 2,400 subjects. “Our aim was to look at the treatment of bacteria so we only looked at people who were infected but had not developed an ulcer or cancer. At the end, 1,630 people were enrolled, half were given treatment and half were given a placebo. Subsequently, in 1999 and 2006, we went back to the village and repeated the endoscopy on the subjects we could find.” What he discovered was a reduced number of cancer cases in the treatment group compared to the placebo group. “But this reduction was a trend only, we couldn’t show a statistical significance which we needed. But just looking at the numbers we could see there was a difference.” Wong credits two major reasons for the reduced number of cancers – first, an improvement in the patients’ quality of life since the Cultural Revolution, which has reduced the number of cancers nationwide and, secondly, early intervention. “With some patients it may have been too late to intervene,” he said. “One group was still relatively healthy while the other group already had severe inflammation and what we call pre- cancerous changes. We found in the two groups those who already had severe changes had similar cancer rates, but in patients that only had mild inflammation the difference was huge.” Wong is continuing to follow the progress of that group but in the meantime he has launched a nationwide public campaign. “We have a strong idea, backed by data from other parts of the world, supporting our claim that treatment of the bacteria is very good for preventing stomach cancer. In urban areas, rates of stomach cancer are certainly dropping, but it is still a major cause of death nationwide. We can’t prevent it in everyone, but at least our data show that treatment reduces the chances of developing it,” he said. The first campaign, targeting the public, started in December 2006 and was comprised of a two-day exhibition in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province. The Nobel Laureate, Professor Robert Warren, who discovered the bacteria, was invited to give a talk, and free tests and health counselling were offered to over 3,000 people per day. Wong plans further campaigns in Fujian and then aims to branch out to other provinces. “In the long-run we will probably need the help of the government to disseminate the message,” he said. But if the screening programme is successful the team could see an end to one of China’s biggest killers. PEOPLE A Dutiful Engineer P rofessor Chew Weng Cho entered academia at age 32 to avoid becoming a senior manager too early in his career. Now, 22 years later, he has finally decided the time is right to take up duties as an administrator. Chew is the new Dean of Engineering, a post that involves more administration than research and requires him to play a leading role in shaping the future of the Faculty over the next few years. “It was time to pay my dues,” he said. “I have been asked for some time to serve as an administrator. It is now almost called for, given the stage of the career I am in. “In the back of my mind I had thought I would come to Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore in the later part of my career. They’re all quite westernised places and their economies are booming, and their leaders want their universities to be world class. With my experience, I have a lot more to share with these places than an established organization in the US, where there is less need for change.” Born in Malaysia, Chew was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for several years with Schlumberger-Doll Research in the US. His work there focused on using electromagnetic fields to search for underground hydrocarbon and oil reserves. He rose quickly through the ranks to become a department manager before deciding that he preferred the academic world and, in 1985, joined the University of Illinois. He soon established himself at the forefront of research on electromagnetic waves and fields, and is one of the most cited authors in his area of speciality, according to the ISI Citation. While at the University of Illinois, he was awarded Founder Professorship and Y.T. Lo Endowed Chair Professorship, and received teaching and research awards. Fittingly, he is now our Faculty of Engineering’s Chair of Electromagnetics. Chew will continue his research at HKU and hopes to inspire academics in the Faculty to go deeper and wider in their own research pursuits. “A lot of the research here has been driven by industrial applications. It’s important to be engaged with industry, but we would like to have a longer term vision and place more emphasis on science-based engineering, where we take the approach of basic science but with an eye for technology development,” he said. “We would also encourage facul ty members to be internationally engaged, attend international conferences, and visit with the top research groups in the world. By so doing, they can acquire an international mindset and be on the right track in dealing with the most current research problems. They can also share what they have learned with our students in the classroom.” Chew considers the undergraduate programme to be one of the Faculty’s strengths, but even here, there is room for pushing the boundaries. “HKU Engineering offers the best undergraduate education to students here. We also want to serve the needs of the region rather than just Hong Kong itself, and recruit more students from the hinterland – the Pearl River Delta and further into Mainland China, as well as from South East Asia and the rest of the world,” he said. “Our approach will remain the same: we emphasise the importance of teaching the fundamentals, and continue to educate students who are creative, good thinkers and good leaders. More likely than not, they will become leaders in their workplace and not be run-of-the-mill engineers. They will need very good communication, interpersonal and language skills, and be able to engage with the rest of the world. “They should also be encouraged and given the liberty to pursue their passion in engineering – making and creating new technologies that can benefit society and alter our way of life. “The engineering profession is involved with the creation of wealth at the grassroots level. There are a lot of technology companies in the Pearl River Delta that are indirectly a source of wealth for Hong Kong. “If we can upgrade these i ndust r i es by i nt roduc i ng advanced technologies with higher added values, then the weal th created can directly and indirectly benefit Hong Kong and strengthen its role as a regional hub,” he said. 5 4