China-Japan cooperation to help more cancer patients

Chinese colorectal cancer patients may not have to give up treatment even if they are at an advanced age or in the late stage, as overseas services now give them more choices.

Jointly established by China's Saint Lucia Consulting and Japan's Toranomon Hospital, a service platform to transfer Chinese colorectal cancer patients to Japan's leading medical institute was launched in Beijing on Saturday to mutually improve the disease's screening, prevention and treatment.

Asian countries have a large number of colorectal cancer patients, with China, which saw about 517,100 new cases in 2022, and Japan having the second-largest number in its cancer population. Usually about half of the patients lose their lives, according to Gu Jin, director of the colorectal cancer surgery at Beijing Cancer Hospital.

For doctors keeping patients' anus remains a challenging task as most rectal cancer sufferers have lesions on the middle or lower section of the rectum, which are next to the sphincter ani.

Kuroyanagi Hiroya, vice-president of Toranomon Hospital and one of the world's leading gastrointestinal tumor surgery experts, said laparoscopy and AI-assisted gastrointestinal surgery are widely adopted in the hospital to reduce patients' pain and better protect their anus.

Toranomon Hospital, located in the urban area of Tokyo, leads in colorectal cancer treatment nationwide with a five-year survival rate of terminal-stage patients as high as 40 percent to 50 percent.

Masashi UENO, director of gastrointestinal surgery (lower gastrointestinal tract) of Toranomon Hospital, said more than 50 percent of the late-stage colorectal cancer patients treated in the hospital are cured thanks to their improving surgical resection technology and preoperative radiotherapy.

Cai Qiang, founder and board chairman of Saint Lucia Consulting, said patients of critical and complex diseases such as cancer are recommended to seek overseas medical services to receive better medical consulting, treatment, and possibly new drugs and treatments that have yet to be approved in the country.

Saint Lucia Consulting, headquartered in Beijing, is one of China's largest and most well-established medical consulting and medical referral companies for patients seeking the best medical care in the world. Its global partners include some of the most prestigious hospitals in the US, the UK, Japan and Singapore.

Since its establishment 13 years ago, the company has helped more than 6,000 Chinese patients seeking medical treatment abroad. About 70 percent of them were cancer patients.