Source: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Written by: International Office of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Organized by the Guangdong Provincial Anticancer Association, the US Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (USCACA), Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) and the Chinese Journal of Cancer, the 4th Guangzhou International Symposium on Oncology was held on November 5-7, 2015, at the Baiyun International Convention Center in Guangzhou, China. The symposium was a great success – more than 200 famous specialists from all over the world were invited as the session chairmen and speakers, a total of over 1,500 people participated in this event. This year, we have organized 2 main sessions followed by 12 parallel sessions for different types of cancer and treatments, with a special emphasis on precision medicine.
In the opening ceremony, on behalf Prof. Ruihua Xu, President of SYSUCC and the president of the symposium, Prof. Musheng Zeng, Vice President of SYSUCC, delivered the opening speech. He expressed his warm welcome to the distinguished guests from all over the world, and highlighted the topics to be discussed in the meeting. Prof. Minbin Yu, Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University, also expressed his greetings and pointed out the concept of precision medicine in his speech. He suggested that the experts should exchange their ideas in terms of basic theories, clinical skills and academic achievements, to generate booming atmosphere for the development of cancer treatment and prevention.

The “4th Guangzhou International Symposium on Oncology” continued focusing on “delivering the latest advances in oncology and increasing international scientific exchanges”, gathering the most outstanding scientists and physicians in the world together to discuss the hottest issues in the flied of oncology, for the purpose of establishing a more spacious and high-level academic exchange platform on oncology. This year the symposium hosted a range of speakers including Prof. Jinming Yu, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Shandong Cancer Hospital, Prof. Qimin Zhan, member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Prof. Dongxin Lin, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from SYSUCC, Prof. Wei Zhang from MD Anderson Cancer Center, Prof. Carlo M. Croce, member of the US National Academy of Sciences from Ohio State University, Prof. Curtis C. Harris from National Cancer Institute, Prof. Kang Zhang from University of California at San Diego, Prof. Tony Mok from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the former and incumbent chairs of the national professional committee.

The agenda was designed with the idea of combining basic and clinical research, with a special emphasis on translational research, integrating the concept of precision medicine into the parallel sessions. The parallel session focused on different types of disease, including thoracic cancer, lymphoma, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, GI cancer, brain tumor, urological cancer, gynecological cancer and translational medicine. Especially, the symposium included the Journal Development Session, inviting Prof. Curtis C. Harris (Editor-in-Chief of Carcinogenesis), Dr. Myles Axton (Chief Editor of Nature Genetics) and Dr. Helena Yang (Senior Scientific Editor of Cancer Cell) to share experiences on how authors can write and present their articles in top journals. The symposium was a great success, as the meeting hall was packed with scientists and physicians, who showed their deep interest in the lecture and actively participated in the discussion about the diagnose and treatment for a single category of cancer.

With the effort of the organizing committee, the scale of the symposium is growing continuously, resulting in the expanding of awareness and academic influence. Prof. Ruihua Xu, President of SYSUCC, hopes that the Guangzhou International Symposium on Oncology will be even better in the future, as it is one of the biggest worldwide events in the field of Oncology, gathering the domestic and foreign experts together to push for the progress of making cancer history.