Experts hail China's long-term fight for cancer prevention and control

China has built a primary cancer prevention and control system and seen effective results. The five-year survival rate of cancer patients has risen by almost 10 percentage points in the past decade, medical experts told the Roche Oncology Forum over the weekend.

However, there is still a distance between the target set under China's 2030 Health Plan and the progress made by developed countries.

There are about 4.06 million newly reported cancer cases in the nation annually, with 2.41 million deaths due to the disease each year. The five-year survival rate is 40 percent. The target in the 2030 plan is no lower than 46.6 percent.

Dr Li Jin from Shanghai East Hospital said the incidence of cancer in China still has a rising tendency.

"Due to the increasing number of elderly people, strong disease burden and large number of patients, cancer prevention and control has become a national strategy in China. It is important to promote a complete system with cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, while the medical industry must enhance innovation and new medication development," he suggested.

Dr Wu Depei, director of the Chinese Medical Association's hematology branch, noted that the overall survival rate of cancer is still low in rural and under-developed regions, which requires an introduction of high-end medical resources at the grassroots level and an effective patient transfer between different levels of hospitals.

"The promotion of new medications and new treatment plans is also important to enhance treatment outcomes for cancer patients," Wu said.

Top experts said new technologies and new theories are important in clinical practice.

New treatment like immunotherapy and precise medicine like molecular subtyping are boosting cancer treatment, experts told the forum, which discussed new development, new information and new polices in fields like hematological cancer, breast cancer, digestive cancer, lung cancer and individualized medicine.

"With the development of molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics, we are able to have a better and deeper understanding of how cancer happens and its growth. Doctors and scientists are translating such discoveries into effective diagnosis and treatment formats to benefit patients," said Dr Hu Xichun from the Shanghai Cancer Center.