Chen Zhu: fight a comprehensive battle to control cancer

Source: ScienceNet 2014-11-13 at present, cancer has replaced stroke as the "first killer" in China At the just concluded cell seminar, Chen Zhu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that we should not only do academic research, but also further carry out more powerful medical reform On November 9, the world-renowned Cell Seminar landed in Asia for the first time and was located in Beijing The conference, which was held jointly by cell press and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences for the first time, focused on cancer research It happened to be a "APEC blue" day However, Chen Zhu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that since 2009, cancer has replaced stroke as the "first killer" in China At the same time, pollution has become one of the causes of cancer along with aging and lifestyle changes As the first speaker of the conference, Chen Zhu felt that the situation was already very serious At present, he should not only do academic research, but also actively build and improve the health service system "It's hard to imagine how to have a complete 'Chinese dream' without health." "China is facing a war to deal with cancer." When it comes to the current situation of cancer in China, Chen Zhu is worried According to the data, there are about 3.12 million people in China every year, that is, about 8550 people are diagnosed with cancer every day Among them, in 2009, the cancer prevalence rate in mainland China was 285.91 cases per 100000 people, double that of 20 years ago The death rate from cancer is also much higher than in the 1980s Recently, a cancer survival data released by the National Cancer Center National Cancer Prevention and Control Research Office showed that compared with the 5-year survival rate of nearly 70% of all cancers in the United States, the overall survival rate of cancer in China is still at a low level, less than half of it In this regard, Chen Zhu explained that different types of cancer at home and abroad are the important reasons for this huge difference The incidence rate of breast cancer and prostate cancer is the highest in the United States In China, the incidence rate is higher in lung cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, etc According to Chen Zhu's report, the death rate of lung cancer ranks first in China "The high incidence of cancer in China is often the type with poor prognosis, so the mortality rate is relatively high." Chen Zhu said The lack of original research in the face of aggressive cancer, targeted treatment is regarded as an effective way to treat cancer by the industry The rapid development of cancer targeted drugs seems to open the door of hope for cancer patients "Targeted therapy has been proved to be very effective in clinic, and small molecular compounds, especially targeted drugs, are easy to be used and monitored in clinic after they are developed." Cao Xuetao, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, one of the organizers and one of the president of the conference, and editorial board member of cell magazine, said that no matter universities, research institutions or some large pharmaceutical companies, they are actively investing in research and development However, as a hot topic of international frontier research, targeted therapy is undoubtedly a difficult problem Determine which target is effective, how to design target treatment after finding the target, how to hit the target To solve these problems, we need more advanced knowledge and technology Of course, it is also necessary to have a clearer and essential understanding of cancer cells, cancer microenvironment and even cancer patients At present, there are many bright spots in our country, such as using all trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide to treat leukemia However, "there are very few treatments that are truly original in China and have international influence and are adopted." Cao Xuetao said that in the mainstream direction, there is still a gap between China and the world's most advanced level In order to solve this problem, Cao Xuetao believes that we should increase the original scientific research and develop new drugs that can benefit patients in our country Furthermore, more open international cooperation has also been put on the agenda "Cancer research is not only a national level thing, but also requires global communication and cooperation." Michael bishop, a Nobel laureate and professor at the University of California School of medicine, said that in clinical trials, for example, individuals have very different genetic backgrounds and drug resistance However, most clinical trials do not fully see these differences, which is equivalent to taking an average value "China has very rich resources and great potential for clinical trials." In Chen Zhu's view, cancer control is a comprehensive campaign, especially for China "We should not only do academic research, but also carry out more powerful medical reform." In January 2009, the State Council proposed to achieve universal access to basic medical and health services by 2020 through the medical reform plan Chen Zhu said that since 2009, China's basic medical facilities have been improving The central government has invested more than 50 billion yuan in the renovation of 2000 county-level hospitals, 5000 home town central hospitals, more than 2000 community health centers and 25000 rural clinics Moreover, the reimbursement rate of 20 major diseases such as congenital heart disease and childhood leukemia has also been greatly increased In 2013, 1.99 million patients benefited from the new protection mechanism "In 2010, China's life expectancy increased to 74.8 years Today, urban and rural residents can enjoy 41 kinds of basic public health projects in 10 categories for free " Chen Zhu said In such a favorable situation, the fight against cancer seems to be moving in a bright direction "Next, we need to control the main risk factors." Chen Zhu said that in the future, cancer prevention and control actions will expand to basic public medical services, promote cancer health education, reduce smoking rate by 5% in 2014-2017, and improve cancer screening coverage "In the future, we will also promote standardized cancer treatment and further improve the coverage of health insurance for cancer patients." Chen Zhu said