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Beneath the swaying palms of Hainan, China’s tropical southernmost island province, a quiet revolution is unfolding.
In the secluded town of Lecheng, a 50-year-old woman sits in a sunlit hospital room, her gaze steady as a nurse administers an injection that could rewrite her future.
Diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer, she is among the first patients in China to receive the LK101 injection – a personalised mRNA vaccine designed to slash the risk of relapse.
Lecheng, an enclave covering 20 sq km (7.7 square miles) on Hainan’s eastern coast, is no ordinary town.
Dotted with over 30 state-of-the-art hospitals nestled amid lush foliage, it is China’s only “medical special zone”, where patients can access therapies still in clinical trials long before they hit the mainstream market.
These can range from cutting-edge stem cell treatments to gene therapies.
At West China Lecheng Hospital of Sichuan University, where the woman received her vaccine, single-patient suites with floor-to-ceiling windows overlook tropical gardens, a far cry from the crowded, ageing wards typical of mainland public hospitals.
