IOncology

Adhering to the core concept of "Integrated Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Winning through Integration," on November 14, 2024, a feast of knowledge on cancer prevention and treatment that brought together domestic and international medical elites, patient representatives, and leaders from all walks of life—The 2024 Chinese Congress on Holistic Integrative Oncology and The 40th Anniversary of China Anti-Cancer Association—grandly opened at the Xi'an International Conference Center.

The 2024 CACA Integrative Gastric Cancer Conference took place in Wuhan from October 18-19, 2024. Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Jie’er Ying, Chairman of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association’s Gastric Cancer Integrative Rehabilitation Committee and Head of the Hepatobiliary and Gastric Oncology Department at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, to discuss the current state and development of integrative rehabilitation for gastric cancer.

The 18th International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) Annual Conference took place in Toronto, Canada, from October 17-19, 2024. During the conference, Prof. Richard S. Finn of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA presented subgroup data from the real-world REFINE study, highlighting that patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) or transarterial radioembolization (TARE) in addition to regorafenib had better survival trends. Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Yunfei Yuan from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center to discuss and provide insights on this study.

From October 25 to 27, 2024, the 9th Academic Symposium of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association China Conference was held in Wuhan. The conference attracted more than 50 internationally renowned experts and scholars from over 20 countries including the United States, Germany, France, Russia, and Australia, as well as 21 academicians from the two academies and over 700 domestic experts in the field of hepato-pancreato-biliary. At this conference, Professor Eduard Jonas from the Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town, and President of the Europe-Africa Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA), delivered a wonderful report titled "Transitioning from guidelines to personalized medicine in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma - a global perspective." we invited Professor Eduard Jonas for an in-depth interview to share fascinating insights on the personalized treatment of liver cancer with colleagues in the field.

October 21-27, 2024, Wuhan, at the 9th Academic Symposium of the Chinese Chapter of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA), we interviewed Professor René Adam, the current President of the IHPBA and a famous surgeon at AP-HP Paul Brousse Hospital in Paris, France, to share his research explorations on the use of liver transplantation combined with chemotherapy for the treatment of colorectal cancer with liver metastases (CRLM).

The "Expert Consensus on Radiotherapy Combined with Immunotherapy for Unresectable Lung Cancer (2024 Edition)" was recently released under the guidance of Academician Jinming Yu from Shandong Cancer Hospital, Professor Ying Cheng from Jilin Cancer Hospital, and Professor Liang’an Chen from the Chinese PLA General Hospital. This consensus provides evidence and guidance for the application of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy in clinical practice. In an exclusive interview with Oncology Frontier, Dr. Zhiyong Ma from Henan Cancer Hospital discussed the optimal duration of immunotherapy as consolidation therapy, individualized treatment in radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy, and future research directions.

The Phase III EMERALD-1 study has shown that for patients with unresectable intermediate to advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the combination of durvalumab, bevacizumab, and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) significantly improves progression-free survival (PFS) compared to TACE alone. At the 2024 International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) conference, Dr. Stephen L. Chan from the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong presented a safety and efficacy analysis from the EMERALD-1 study, considering treatment timing and baseline liver function. In an interview with Oncology Frontier , he shared the latest insights from this analysis.

For advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), treatment strategies typically include platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy, with specific methods determined by molecular biomarker testing. Current unmet medical needs for advanced NSCLC patients include a lack of new treatment options following the failure of immunotherapy combinations, resistance to targeted therapies, and strategies to improve efficacy.

Recently, several immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) regimens have gained regulatory approval for neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and perioperative treatment, transforming the treatment landscape for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Based on the KEYNOTE-671 study, the perioperative pembrolizumab regimen has been approved for resectable NSCLC in stages II, IIIA, or IIIB (T3-4N2). Is this now the standard treatment for resectable stage II/III NSCLC, regardless of PD-L1/EGFR/ALK status? Dr. Sheena Bhalla, Dr. David Nelson, and Dr. David Gerber from the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center share their insights on this topic.

The 27th National Clinical Oncology Conference and 2024 CSCO Annual Meeting, co-hosted by the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology and the Beijing Health Management Development Foundation, took place in Xiamen from September 25-29, 2024. During the conference, several lung cancer-focused forums highlighted cutting-edge research and progress in the field both domestically and internationally. During the event, Oncology Frontier had the opportunity to interview Dr. Tony Mok from the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He shared his insights on the current role and future outlook of biomarker testing in clinical practice for lung cancer.