godfather of surgery

Chapter 1311: The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic

In the evening, Yang Ping returned home to find that Xiao Su had already prepared dinner. His son crawled around on the floor, then crawled over and hugged his leg before slowly standing up and giggling at him.

Yang Ping picked up his son, a feeling of tenderness welling up inside him. He had spent too little time with his son, having been constantly in the laboratory lately.

"You must be very tired lately?" Xiao Su asked.

"I'm not tired," Yang Ping said while teasing his son. "Seeing you and our son makes me not tired at all."

Yang Ping sat down to eat dinner and let his son sit on his lap.

"Sometimes I wonder, what would the world be like if we really found that magic key, if K therapy could really cure many cancers?"

“There will be other diseases, but the rate at which new diseases emerge will certainly be slower than the rate at which humans conquer old diseases. Although diseases will not disappear, humans will live healthier and higher-quality lives,” Xiao Su said.

“Cancer is different; it is life’s self-betrayal. Curing cancer proves that the order of life can be restored, mistakes can be corrected, and madness can return to clarity.”

Xiao Su smiled and said, "You once said that medicine is the intersection of science and humanities, and now you are at that intersection."

Yang Ping was silent for a moment: "People have too many expectations and too many interpretations of my new method. Some people portray us as saviors, while others criticize us for being pretentious. The paper is over-cited, and the theory is simplified into slogans. I worry that the complexity of science will be lost in the process of dissemination, leaving only a myth of a miracle cure."

“Then you need to communicate more,” Xiao Su said. “Not to the media, but to your colleagues, students, doctors and scientists. Teach them your thought process, not just the conclusions.”

Yang Ping nodded: "I will start writing a book next week." He suddenly said, "Not an academic monograph, but a book about 'how to think about cancer.' Starting from the first question, it will record the detours we have taken, the accidental discoveries, the construction of theories, and the current hypotheses, showing the imperfections and iterative process of science."

“That would be wonderful,” Xiao Su smiled. “Real science is more powerful than perfect legends.”

While Yang Ping and Xiao Su were chatting, the little guy sat on Yang Ping's lap with a big smile on his face. He stared at his father and then at his mother with wide eyes, as if to say, "What are you talking about?"

After dinner, Yang Ping and Xiao Su chatted for a long time. Yang Ping shared many new ideas with Xiao Su as soon as possible.

It was late at night, and Xiao Su took the child to rest. Yang Ping went into the study, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes to rest, and was in a half-asleep, half-awake state, which was his favorite state.

In the Systems Space Lab: He uses replicated data from 8,000 globally shared K-therapy treatments to search for deep patterns between TIM variants and clinical efficacy.

Preliminary results have revealed a puzzling phenomenon: in some tumor types, TIM expression levels are positively correlated with treatment efficacy; however, in other types, moderate expression results in the best efficacy; and in a few other types, low TIM expression actually makes patients more sensitive to factor K.

“This is unreasonable…” Yang Ping muttered to himself.

Unless TIM is not simply "target density" but an indicator of system state. High expression may mean the system is deeply hijacked, but it may also mean the system is on the verge of instability; low expression may mean the hijacking is not deep, but it may also mean that cancer cells are using a completely different survival strategy.

He retrieved the single-cell data from the system panel and began stratified analysis. A new pattern emerged: the patients with the best treatment outcomes had the highest heterogeneity in TIM expression within their tumors—there were both high-expressing and low-expressing cells, creating an internal "dialogue tension."

Yang Ping wrote in his notes: "Perhaps the diversity of identity states within a tumor determines its sensitivity to identity verification signals. A highly homogeneous tumor may be more likely to form collective resistance; while a tumor with internal identity confusion may be more likely to disintegrate from within."

As hypotheses become more specific and in-depth, experiments need to be designed to verify them step by step.

He picked up a pen and drew a simple diagram on the paper: a circle representing the cancer cell system; a key being inserted; but after the key was inserted, it did not connect to a lock, but to a complex network inside the circle.

He then drew a small switch in red pen.

“I’ve found you,” he whispered, “and then, I press down gently.”

He took one last look at the red dot switch on the paper, then left the system space and walked out of the study.

The motion-sensor lights in the corridor gradually turned on and then gradually turned off behind him.

Yang Ping entered the bedroom and gently lay down amidst Xiao Su's even breathing.

Tomorrow is another new day.

……

Sunlight streamed obliquely into the office, casting dappled shadows on Yang Ping's solid wood desk as he leaned back in his chair.

"Attack. Adjustment"

He repeated the two words softly, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the table. A copy of the "Huangdi Neijing" (Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic) lay open in front of him.

The sentences from the *Huangdi Neijing* (Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic) in my mind began to intertwine strangely with concepts from modern cell biology—

When righteousness resides within, evil cannot invade.

"The stability of the cell identity system makes it impossible for abnormal cells to gain a foothold."

"To cure a disease, one must seek its root cause."

"The essence of cancer is not uncontrolled cell proliferation, but a logical rebellion of the cell's identity system."

"Carefully observe the location of Yin and Yang and adjust them accordingly, aiming for balance."

"By precisely regulating cellular identity signals, we can restore the balance of the tissue microenvironment."

Yang Ping sat up abruptly, took out a sheet of A4 paper, and began to construct a new theoretical framework, a framework that connects the core concepts of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

Traditional Western thinking: Disease is seen as an invasion of the "other" → Treatment is seen as an "attack/clearance" (antibiotics, chemotherapy, targeted drugs).

Traditional Chinese medicine views disease as a "system imbalance" → treatment as "regulating/restoring balance" (herbal remedies, acupuncture, massage).
New approach: Disease as a "system logic error" → Treatment as "system error correction and state reset"

Modern medicine: Intervening at the molecular level (proteins, genes, signaling pathways)

Traditional Chinese Medicine: Systemic macro-regulation (Qi, Blood, Yin and Yang, Zang-Fu organs)
Future medicine: Intervening at the system logic level (cellular identity status, organizational order protocols, etc.)
"Mediation" rather than "attack"; "dialogue" rather than "war"

Repair, not destroy.

……

Yang Ping's eyes grew brighter and brighter. He realized that all his past thinking had been unconsciously approaching the core wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine, only that it had been rephrased in the language of modern science.

But this is not simply "using science to prove that Traditional Chinese Medicine is correct." It is a deeper integration: using modern biological technology to realize the treatment concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine that have been around for thousands of years.

In ancient times, physicians could only use complex combinations of natural herbs to macroscopically regulate the entire system through the various molecules produced after metabolism. Effects existed, but the mechanisms were vague, dosages were inaccurate, individual differences were vast, and these were merely accumulations of experience.

Now, they can use genetic engineering to precisely manufacture various active factors, analyze the structure of TIM proteins, and use single-cell sequencing to monitor the response of each cell in real time. This is a "system regulation" that is precise to the molecular level.

“It’s not the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, but the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.” Yang Ping muttered to himself, then shook his head. “No, neither of those. It’s a third thing—system regulation medicine based on a deep understanding of life systems.”

Western medicine is correct, and traditional Chinese medicine is also correct; they approach disease from different angles.

There is actually no contradiction between the two; different approaches are suitable for different diseases.

For example, in infections caused by viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms, Western medicine uses antibiotics to directly eliminate the pathogens. Therefore, for diseases caused by external factors, directly eliminating the external, lethal factors is the best approach, and attempting to restore health through regulation has a very limited success rate. However, while eliminating the pathogens, regulatory methods can be used to assist in restoring the body systems disrupted by the pathogens. There is a question of primary and secondary considerations here.

This is similar to how, if a computer is infected with a foreign virus, the best solution is to completely remove the virus.

Other diseases, such as tumors, hypertension, and diabetes, regardless of their initiating factors, ultimately lead to a series of disorders in the body's systems. These diseases require regulatory methods to restore the normal functioning of the body's systems. Of course, eliminating these initiating factors can also prevent recurrence.

Was the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic really written by ancient people? Why did people of that era have such advanced ideas?

This concept is more advanced than modern medicine, but there are not many options for the tools to implement it; they can only be selected from natural plants, animals, and minerals.

He immediately convened an emergency meeting.

"Everyone, I think I've found something more fundamental."

In the conference room, Yang Ping drew two circles on the whiteboard, one labeled "attack" and the other "mediation".

“Over the past few months, we’ve been demonstrating that K therapy isn’t simply targeted killing, but rather triggering a self-destruct program in cancer cells. We call this process ‘identity verification,’” Yang Ping said, looking at his team. “But today I realize that we can understand it from a higher dimension.”

He pointed to the circle for "adjustment": "This is not 'attack-destroy,' but 'adjustment-restore.'"

Song Ziming frowned: "But the cancer cells were indeed eliminated, weren't they?"

“Yes, but the methods of elimination are different,” Yang Ping explained. “For example, chemotherapy is like poisoning, an indiscriminate attack that damages normal tissue. Immunotherapy is like arming immune cells to attack, which may trigger an excessive immune response. And with K therapy, think back to the data from our typical cases.”

"As the tumor shrinks, the patient's liver function indicators improve, sleep quality increases, and they feel like their body is undergoing a major clean-up. This is not a destructive experience, but an experience of the system restoring order."

Lu Xiaolu pondered: "Like the difference between restarting a computer and smashing it?"

“Somewhat similar!” Yang Ping nodded. “Chemotherapy is like smashing things, while K therapy is like finding the system error and fixing it, restarting the faulty program module, which is the cancer cell, if necessary.”

He further explained: "The human body, as a complex system, has a powerful ability to self-repair and maintain order. The core wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine is to trust and mobilize this ability. Modern medicine, on the other hand, has long chosen a more direct but also more brutal attack strategy. Neither is wrong, and both have their own scope of application."

“Our research shows,” Yang Ping’s voice was full of power, “that when the regulation is precise enough, down to the molecular conformation level, we can trigger the system’s own powerful repair program with minimal intervention.”

Tang Shun raised his hand: "So you mean that Factor K doesn't directly kill cancer cells, but rather 'regulates' the state of cancer cells, causing them to return from a 'rebellious state' to a 'state of accepting order and management,' and the way to return is by activating a preset elimination program?"

“That’s exactly right.” Yang Ping wrote the key equation on the whiteboard:
Precise adjustment of cell identity status → triggering of system order maintenance protocol → abnormal cells are programmatically eliminated.

“This can explain many phenomena,” Song Ziming thought quickly. “Why do some patients’ overall condition improve after treatment? Why is tissue regeneration observed in some cases? Because this is not the clearing of ruins after a war, but the reconstruction of order after a rebellion is quelled.”

Yang Ping added, "This also points to a broader prospect. If we can use this method to 'regulate' cancer cells, then theoretically, we can also use similar ideas to 'regulate' other disease states—autoimmune diseases, degenerative diseases, metabolic diseases..."

The meeting room fell silent; everyone realized what this idea meant.

It is not a new drug.

It is not a new technology.

It is a completely new medical model.

“But we need to prove,” Yang Ping broke the silence, “that this is not just philosophical speculation, but an operational scientific framework. We need to transform the concept of ‘regulation’ from the macroscopic description of traditional Chinese medicine into the precise language of modern biology.”

It is necessary not only to monitor changes in tumor cells, but also to comprehensively monitor systemic changes throughout the patient's body during treatment: dynamics of immune cell subsets, changes in metabolite profiles, organ function indicators, and even changes in gut microbiota. A systemic regulatory map induced by K therapy needs to be created.

To explore the different systemic responses induced by different doses of factor K, is there an "optimal modulated dose" that can both trigger tumor clearance and maximize systemic repair response? Are there any side effects of "overmodulation"?
We have begun small-scale explorations of the role of factor K analogs in other disease models, collaborating with the autoimmune disease team to test whether TIM regulation may correct erroneous immune attacks; and collaborating with the metabolic disease team to explore the possibility of regulating the identity state of adipocytes and hepatocytes.

“This will be a long-term plan of five or ten years,” Yang Ping summarized, “but the first step is to start with the next patient.”

"I recommend everyone read this book when you have time!"

Yang Ping pushed a copy of the "Huangdi Neijing" to the center of the conference table.

Although they are all Western doctors, everyone is very familiar with this book. In the past, most of these Western doctors were not very interested in traditional Chinese medicine, so it was impossible for them to read through such a classic Chinese medicine text. But now that the professor recommends this book, everyone's views will definitely change.

The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic was closest to Tang Shun, and he carefully took it with both hands. He had never read this book before.

"The professor is so amazing, could it be from studying classic Chinese medicine texts?" he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Griffin craned his neck and said, "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic?"
Is this the professor's secret?
(End of this chapter)