China cancer patient who inspired hit film hopes to stop treatment after 35,000 pills over 2 decades
Por Alice Yan — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement Trending in China People & Culture China Personalities China cancer patient who inspired hit film hopes to stop treatment after 35,000 pills over 2 decades
Driven by the cinematic impact of ‘Dying to Survive’, Chinese health authorities fast-tracked critical healthcare reforms for cancer patients
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Alice Yan in Shanghai Published: 10:00am, 23 Oct 2026
Lu Yong, who has a slow-growing blood and bone marrow cancer and inspired the 2018 blockbuster Dying to Survive, has begun reducing his medication and hopes to stop taking it completely within three months.
The acclaimed film is based on Lu’s experience. He has chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and helped patients across China obtain affordable, life-saving generic drugs from India, but was prosecuted by Chinese authorities for selling “fake drugs”.
Before his diagnosis, 58-year-old Lu was a textiles trader in Jiangsu province in eastern China. Diagnosed with CML in 2002, he took Gleevec, a patented drug made by Novartis, for the first few years.
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