Preface – CSCO 2017

Caicun Zhou, MD, PhD Director of the Department of Oncology, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Affiliated to Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

Caicun Zhou, MD, PhD Director of the Department of Oncology,
Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Affiliated to Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

Dear Colleagues,
In the global fight against cancer, clinical trials across multiple regions of the world have become common practice, with the ultimate goal to bring good medicinal products to patients around the world, as fast as scientifically possible. Safety and efficacy data generated from local patients are a regulatory requirement in many countries including China. As a non-governmental association, the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) holds its academic meeting annually to provide a platform for scientific exchange to oncology research professionals from China and abroad. The theme of the 20th conference, which took place in Xiamen from September 26th to 30th, was “Together we innovate on our inheritance”. Adhering to CSCO’s principles, the conference provided great opportunities for communications and cooperations in clinical oncology with a focus on Chinese patients. Clinical trials conducted in Asia have contributed considerably to the development of targeted therapies, such as EGFR or ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and immunotherapies, but also to the implementation of cytotoxic drugs. Particularly in lung cancer, Eastern Asia has evolved into a stronghold of cancer research over the previous years. From the point of view of thoracic oncology, the goal of last year’s CSCO meeting was to introduce the Chinese guidelines for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer and encourage innovation in clinical research in this area.
The large amount of clinical data coming out from oncology trials internationally presents an information flood and an increasing pressure on oncologists working on personalized medicine and biomarker research. This report of memo inOncology provides a concise summary of topics focused on lung cancer care, which were discussed at the CSCO 2017 Annual Meeting. It covers various subjects ranging from guidelines for the treatment of NSCLC in China, diagnosis and treatment of mutated NSCLC, different therapies for lung squamous cell carcinoma, the response to immunotherapy as well as the clinical care of lung cancer patients with brain metastasis.
Overall, the data presented at the conference highlighted progress in all of these areas. We hope that the implementations of the CSCO NSCLC guidelines, further drug development and the iden-tification of reliable biomarkers will make cure a feasible goal for many of our patients in the near future.