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CCTV: Stem cell technology helps the "Noodle Brothers" stand tall again.
来源：CCTV1
2020-12-14
Twins were diagnosed with the same rare disease, dubbed "Noodle Men," medically known as "Super Cancer," which left the 12-year-olds paralyzed and ultimately led to their deaths by age 18. Their parents embarked on a grueling journey across China, tirelessly searching for a life-saving cure. Thanks to groundbreaking stem-cell therapy, the brothers are now able to walk normally again—and their lives have been given a second chance.
Tragic news arrives—doctors predict she won’t live past 18.
How enviable and blissful it is to have a pair of twin sons—yet for Cai Liping’s family, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Every day, she tightly straps her twin sons, Binbin and Linlin, to a stool—and then relentlessly piles dozens of pounds of sandbags onto their legs, forcing them to practice for seven or eight hours straight, nonstop. As their mother, why would she subject her own children to such brutal treatment?
It turns out that Binbin and Linlin have contracted a terrible illness—and without undergoing grueling rehabilitation training, it will be incredibly difficult for them to walk properly ever again.
A few years ago, when Binbin and Linlin were first born, they were as healthy, lively, and cheerful as any other normal child—but everything changed after their fifth birthday.
One day, the family accidentally noticed that the child was walking oddly—his heels weren’t touching the ground; instead, he seemed to tiptoe most of the time. To make matters worse, the child was also very thin, with hardly any muscle development at all.
Later on, the child gradually found it increasingly difficult to walk and even struggled with climbing stairs, which finally woke the couple up to the situation. They immediately took their child to the hospital.
After a thorough examination, the doctor said there was nothing serious—his bones were healing exceptionally well, and his development was also on track. The reason he might be thin, however, could be due to a calcium deficiency.
Thinking they had identified the cause, Cai Liping bought calcium supplements and started giving them to her child. But after some time passed, their children’s condition still hadn’t improved. Determined to clear up their lingering doubts, the couple decided to visit a larger hospital for another round of testing.
Yet this time, the test results plunged the entire family into "deep despair."
The diagnosis indicates proceeding with Muscular Dystrophy , the doctor's prognosis for this disease is, A child who becomes paralyzed at age twelve will likely pass away by age eighteen.
After exhausting all avenues of medical treatment without success, they finally grasped at the last straw.
The doctor’s words came as a bolt from the blue—words like "paralysis" and "death" relentlessly weighed on Cai Liping’s heart. She simply couldn’t believe her two sons had been so easily sentenced to death.
So, despite being only 1.5 meters tall, the mother carried both children on her back as she traveled to major hospitals across the provincial capital and Beijing, embarking on a long journey in search of medical help.
But all the hospitals gave the same answer: This disease is incurable—there’s nothing we can do but wait for death.
The couple gradually began to lose hope, even contemplating giving up altogether. But the thought of simply standing by and watching their child walk away was unbearable—something they just couldn’t accept. And then, a single remark from their child only strengthened Cai Liping’s resolve even further.
“Mom, I don’t want to be left to fend for myself!” Just those few words were enough—as a mother, she was determined to fight once more for her children.
One day, she happened to see on TV a hospital that was successfully using stem-cell transplants to treat a wide range of diseases. At that moment, she wondered if this same approach could help her own child’s condition. Though hesitant, Cai Liping still decided to give it a shot and dialed the hospital’s number.
She burst into tears over the phone, pleading with the doctor to save her child—though even if the child couldn’t be brought back to life, she was willing to donate every single one of the child’s organs.
Brothers Binbin and Linlin have indeed been diagnosed with a devastating condition far worse than cancer—progressive muscular dystrophy, also known as "Noodle Man." Unfortunately, there is currently no effective treatment for Noodle Man anywhere in the world.
Progressive muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder caused by gene point mutations or deletions. Clinical features include progressively worsening muscle weakness and atrophy, ultimately leading to the patient's death due to heart failure or infection.
According to statistics, currently for every birth 3,500 Among baby boys, one will be born with progressive muscular dystrophy each year. 3,000 people For children like this, the probability of both twins developing the condition simultaneously is only one in 100 million.
Children with this condition lose the ability to walk by around age [specific age], develop paralysis in their teens, and may face life-threatening complications by their twenties.
Although many scholars both domestically and internationally have conducted animal experiments, they found in these studies that, When stem cells were transplanted into the leg muscles of mice, their walking ability improved significantly. But can this situation really be applied to humans? Hospitals have never attempted this before.
Stem cell transplantation helps children miraculously stand up again.
After reviewing extensive research materials and obtaining approval from the hospital leadership, Director Yang and her colleagues embarked on a deeper investigation into stem cell transplantation. Within just a few months, Director Yang developed a comprehensive dual-stem-cell transplant protocol specifically tailored for the twin brothers—and even organized a fundraising campaign to help cover their treatment costs, significantly reducing the financial burden.
Although the hospital had no prior experience with stem-cell treatments for this type of illness, they ultimately decided to take a bold gamble—to fight for the child’s chance at a longer life.
The first step in the stem cell transplant procedure is to extract a specific number of bone marrow stem cells from the child’s body, followed by cell separation, culture, and induction of differentiation—processes that transform the stem cells into a specialized type of cell. Finally, these cells are transplanted back into the patient to help repair the damaged muscle cells.
Unexpectedly, the surgery went incredibly smoothly—twenty days later, Binbin was already able to stand leaning against the wall, and Linlin could even crawl around in bed. This was already a huge improvement compared to when they first arrived at the hospital.
Over the past two years, Binbin and Linlin have successfully undergone four stem cell transplant surgeries. The children are now able to walk, though they’ll still need daily rehabilitation training after the procedures—a challenging and grueling process for them. Still, doctors sincerely hope these young patients might experience a miraculous recovery.
Currently, it remains uncertain whether stem cell therapy can achieve a cure for progressive muscular dystrophy. However, the application of these new technologies has indeed helped alleviate and improve patients' symptoms, enhancing their quality of life and even extending their lifespan. We believe that as regenerative medicine continues to advance, stem cell technology will bring hope to an increasing number of patients suffering from rare diseases.
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