China-US exchange program to study cancer treatment

China's gastrointestinal cancer treatment market is both huge and dynamic, and the United States is looking forward to joining hands with China to tackle related diseases, US experts said.

"The medical technology industry in China is very dynamic, which can help us develop technology much faster. Through the cooperation between Chinese and US specialists, we can potentially develop the procedures of the techniques to treat more patients much faster," said Irving Waxman, professor of medicine, Department of Gastroenterology at UChicago Medicine, part of the University of Chicago.

To facilitate cooperation, UChicago Medicine is initiating a program, the,Clinical Leadership Development Fellowship, which aims to invite seven Chinese scholars from renowned hospitals, such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital, to their campus for a year. There, they will take professional courses and receive certificates in clinical trial management. In the meantime, experts from the US will be sent to China for a similar exchange.

The fellowship was established to provide experts fundamental knowledge and ethics information needed for clinical trials for cancer. In this way, a standardized system can be set up for both China and the US, which may serve doctors tackling cancers like gastrointestinal cancer.

Dr. Blasé Polite, another professor from UChicago Medicine, noted that tumors between individuals or even within a patient's body differ. Therefore, doctors must "consider racial and ethnic diversity and use the most cutting-edge science and tools to find the mutation causing the cancer and target it."

To address the problem, US experts call for international cooperation between China and the US to conduct clinical trials on patients from those countries, finding the optimal treatment for individuals.

"We can work together to help define those diseases and develop specific personalized treatments that will benefit both Chinese and US patients," said Dr. Mitchell Posner, section chief of general surgery and chief of surgical oncology at UChicago Medicine.