Presidents from Four Major Oncology Societies Joint at 19th Annual Meeting of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO)

The 19th Annual Meeting of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) was held in Xiamen, China from September 21-25. The CSCO Annual Meeting is known to attract the most participants in Asia and receives as much attention as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, bringing together top scholars and experts in oncology research and molecular diagnostics to discuss the latest developments in the field. During the Presidential Symposium held on the opening day, the presidents from four world-renowned oncology societies, including CSCO, ASCO, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) came together to discuss the ground-breaking trends in oncology.

“Delicacy Management” and “Precision Treatment”

CSCO Chairman Yi-Long Wu pointed out that precision medicine has gained much attention in recent years as it uses the patient’s genetic information to diagnose and treat the disease. In China, there are many major challenges in precision medicine: The lack of standardized NGS technologies and clinical interpretation of NGS data reminds a issue. People in China tend to overgeneralize and even abuse the concept of precision medicine. More importantly, it will need better collaboration among the researchers and organizations. Therefore, the theme of this year’s CSCO Annual Meeting is “Delicacy Management and Precision Treatment” and the goal of the meeting is to advocate standardization of comprehensive treatment, encourage innovation in clinical research and promote the development of clinical oncology according to internationally accepted standards.

In addition, CSCO announced in 2015 the first guideline on the application of NGS technologies in precision diagnosis, paving the way for the development of precision medicine.

Working Hand in Hand to Fight Cancer and Establish Information Sharing and Collaboration Network

The former ASCO President Peter Yu restated the key elements of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative launched by President Obama in 2016. The Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN) was established to integrate big data and data sharing for cancer research and care through Total Cancer Care (TCC), which can help identify new biomarkers and drug targets, recommend appropriate patient-treatment matches, make better clinical decisions, as well as track treatment efficacy and costs.

The CancerLinQ (Cancer Learning Intelligence Network for Quality) program launched by ASCO is a big-data, health information technology platform that plays a pivotal role in the oncology data ecosystem. With a cumulative total of 750,000 patient medical records agree to participate in the program, this big-data effort aims to give physicians the ability to determine the future direction of cancer treatment modalities.

Cross-disciplinary Integration to Improve Medical Decision-Making

The ESMO President Jean Yves indicated that since cancer is a systemic disease, medical oncology requires multi-disciplinary collaboration. As a result, oncology care should be value-based that uses precision medicine to provide patient-oriented, personalized medical care. In the face of such a reform, oncologists need to have a more thorough understanding of oncology and study cancer and tumors at the molecular scale. Medical teams should include the involvement of pathologists and molecular biologists to make clinical decisions. President Yves also states, in the era of internet and big data, medical oncology relies on rapid data collection. Medical oncologists should educate to integrate those data into medical decision-making.

Clinical Challenges in Precision Oncology

The SSO President Daniel Coit pointed out that surgical oncology will play a substantial part in cancer treatment in the decades to come. In light of the fact that cancer surgery costs are expected to increase year by year and the significant surgery costs will result in a huge economic burden on the patient’s family, a precision healthcare system is necessary to minimize healthcare wastes. In this era of precision medicine, matching patients to practical and effective treatments based on their particular characteristics is a major challenge faced by all surgical oncologists today. President Coit also suggested that a global miscellaneous information network platform should be established to synchronize clinical guidelines published by the leading clinical oncology societies such as SSO, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), ESMO and ASCO in order to further improve medical decision-making.

In summary, the representatives from CSCO, ASCO, ESMO, SSO reached three major direction regarding the trend of precision medicine:

1. Very precise and minimally invasive molecular diagnosis can improve medical decision-making.
2. A cross-disciplinary approach is necessary to integrate healthcare information.
3. Access to and sharing of healthcare data resources is supported.

Comparing with 2016 ASCO’s breakthrough in immunotherapy, CSCO’s 19th Annual Meeting emphasized more heavily on research and clinical practice with liquid biopsy using CTC and ctDNA.

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Editor-Jane