China-US cooperation combating breast cancer launched

The breast cancer center of Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences & Guangdong General Hospital has recently been recognized by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) from the US as its first official partner in China.

The latest inclusion was announced at the 2018 China-America Summit Forum on Surgical Oncology and 2018 China-America Summit Forum on Breast Cancer in Guangzhou, capital city of south Guangdong province in mid June.

Liao Ning, head of the center said: "As an NSABP affiliated member, we can participate in more global research in breast cancer and better present Chinese patients in international researches in a bid to advance treatment and prevention of the disease worldwide," she said.

China reported more than 260,000 new cases of breast cancer annually, accounting for about 15 percent of all new cases of cancer every year, statistics from the Chinese National Central Cancer Registry showed.

The data from Chinese patients is crucial for cancer drug research and development internationally as well, she said.

"The cooperation will be of mutual benefits for both sides and represents a start of wider and deepen collaboration in the future to better contain breast cancer," she said.

Charles Balch, President of the International Sentinel Node Society and former executive vice president and CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, said: "This brings China in as a full partner at the world stage to do clinical trials globally with NSAPB."

Liao and her team would have access into the global clinical trials with investigators worldwide and “her data from China would contribute to global research and clinical trials of breast cancer, he explained.

According to Balch, NSABP had seen over the past two years the quality and excellence of the breast cancer care and research at the center and deter and decided to include it as its affiliated member.

"And I hope it will be so successful that other major projects doing breast cancer clinical trials in China would apply to be approved as NSABP affiliated members as well," he added.

In March, Liao Ning was elected as the International Director of the American Society of Oncology Surgery, which means that the hospital has been in line with international standards in the surgical treatment of breast cancer, including axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy, breast conserving breast surgery and breast reconstruction, according to Geng Qingshan, Party Secretary of Guangdong General Hospital.

"The hospital will vigorously support the follow-up cooperation between the breast cancer center led by Liao and international research and clinical organizations, and jointly explore a scientific and comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment model to benefit more breast cancer patients," he said.

Regarding the latest NSABP inclusion, Geng said: "In April 2018, our hospital submitted the application and after strict examination, we became China's first NSABP member of the main research unit. This is the result of our joint efforts.

I hope that we will continue to deepen cooperation and jointly promote human health in the future."

As the clinical intervention of breast cancer enters into the new stage of targeting therapy and precision medicine, “international cooperation and data sharing is of greater importance for better treatment and cancer drug research and development,” said Liao Ning, who has been committed to breast cancer surgical treatment for nearly 30 years.

The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) based in the US is a clinical trials cooperative group supported since its inception by the US National Cancer Institute.

It has a more than 50-year history of designing and conducting clinical trials that have changed the way breast cancer is treated, and, more recently, prevented.

Notably, it was the NSABP's breast cancer studies that led to the establishment of lumpectomy plus radiation over radical mastectomy as the standard surgical treatment for breast cancer worldwide.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it has research sites at nearly 1000 major medical centers, university hospitals, large oncology practice groups, and health maintenance organizations in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, and Ireland.

At those sites and their satellites, more than 5000 physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals conduct NSABP treatment and prevention trials.