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2011 Sino-French Workshop in Oncology held successfully!

On 25th to 26th November 2011,The Sino-French Workshop in Oncology was jointly hosted in Guangzhou, China, by Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC), the Consulate General of France in Guangzhou, Guangdong Provincial Anti-Cancer Association and the Chinese Journal of Cancer. The attendees included leading experts, scholars as well as governmental officials from France and China, to szhare the latest information, frontier technologies and achievements on oncology, covering from basic research to clinical use.
Chairperson and president of SYSUCC Professor Yi-Xin Zheng, the Consulate General of France Mr. Bruno Bisson and the vice president of Sun Yat-sen University Mr. Ming-Hai Wei addressed in the opening ceremony. Professor Yi-Xin Zheng addressed his warm welcome and gratitude to the guests for their support of this workshop. Mr. Bruno Bisson highly praised the achievements SYSUCC has made in recent years, expecting the further collaboration between China and France. Vice president Wei Minghai brought the encouragement and support from Sun Yat-sen University on SYSUCC’s efforts in international communication and collaboration, wishing this workshop a successful and influential event in the field of Oncology research worldwide.

The workshop provided a forum for exchange of knowledge and cutting-edge findings on basic and translational research and clinical technologies. Audience were amazed by presentations from top experts from France, including Professor Alexander Eggermont, General Director of Institute Gustave Roussy (IGR) on “Challenges regarding concepts, logistics and processing of data in molecular cancer medicine”; Professor Yves-Jean Bignon, Scientific Director of “Jean Perrin” Cancer Center, on “Oncogenetics in medical practice for breast and colon cancers”; Professor Sergio Roman-Roman, Head of Department of Translational Research, Curie Institute on “ Molecular profiling of patient-derived breast cancer xenografts” and etc. Leading domestic researchers also contributed their recent findings, including susceptible genes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the molecular mechanisms of EBV infection in nasopharyngeal epithelial cells as well as other breakthroughs.

These presentations were extremely welcomed by the audience and received enthusiastic feedbacks and discussion on cancer treatment.Besides, this workshop also provided opportunities for scientific communication and collaboration between China and France. Professor Chao-Nan Qian introduced the recent development and future strategy of SYSUCC. SYSUCC not only stands forefront in China in cancer research and clinical technology, but also has long international collaborating history, working together with France as well as institutes from other countries. According to Dr. Li Ya-Ju, Director of international collaboration department, IGR, IGR has been searching for partners in China for a long time. She expected this workshop would accelerate further communication and collaboration between IGR and SYSUCC.

The next symposium themed on Head and Neck Cancer will be held on 6th-7th January, 2012, co-hosted by SYSUCC and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Group photo of the speakers

Oncogenetic consultations in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

Prof. Yves-Jean Bignon, a French specialist in oncogenetic counseling, performed on November 26, 2011 the two first oncogenetic consultations in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center on patients previously treated for breast and ovarian cancer.

A genetic counseling in oncology aims to identify some hereditary predisposition to cancer. After a succession of questions regarding the medical history of the patient and his or her family, the oncogenetic counselor builds a genealogical family tree to assess the risk for a whole family to develop a certain kind of cancer. The counselor can then propose a genetic testing to detect eventual germ-line mutations on cancer genes. As a result, detecting high-risk to a specific cancer may allow diagnosing a cancer at an early stage or even preventing the patient to get a specific cancer.

Although practiced in western countries for decades and widely accepted as an efficient technique for cancer prevention and early diagnosis, especially for breast cancer, ovarian cancer and colorectal cancer, oncogenetic consultation, as a structured technique for cancer diagnosis, isn’t common in China yet and genetic mutation analysis are mostly performed for research purposes. Considering the large size of the Chinese population, organizing early diagnosis for cancer in high-risk sub-group populations will benefit a significant number of patients.

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center recently hosted the “2011 Sino-French Workshop in Oncology” and invited Prof. Yves-jean Bignon to present and discuss his perspective in oncogenetics. Internationally recognized, Prof. Yves-Jean Bignon pioneered oncogenetic consultation in 1988 (France) and brought a major contribution to spread this technique in several countries. In 2009, Prof. Yves-Jean Bignon signed an agreement for the training of physicians from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in oncogenetics.

Aware of the opportunity to take an oncogenetic consultation, two patients made an appointment on November 26, 2011 with Prof. Yves-Jean Bignon. As far as we know, they were the very first oncogenetic consultations in mainland China with medical advices provided to patients and family members accompanied with diagnosis gene testing. Supportive of this initiative, several physicians from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center participated in the consultation as well, discussing relatively to their respective specialty (breast cancer, gynecologic cancer and cancer prevention). The genetic testing associated with those consultations will be performed in collaboration with Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen.

We believe that this consultation was an important step for clinical oncogenetics practice in mainland China, and a team of physicians from SYSUCC has decided to join a sino-french oncogenetics working group, led by Prof. Yves-jean Bignon. Together, they will gather their efforts to first facilitate the availability of the oncogenetic consultation in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center and then contribute to extend this practice in China.

Picture of the first consultation in oncogenetics ever performed in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, from left to right around the table:

- Dr. Min Zheng, Professor, Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

- Dr. Sumei Cao, Associate Professor in the Department of Cancer Prevention, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China

- Dr. Yves-Jean Bignon, 1^st class professor, Director of the Oncogenetics Department, Comprehensive Cancer Center Jean Perrin, Clermont-Ferrand, France

- Dr. Liangping Xia, Associate Professor and Vice-Director, VIP Region, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

- Patient (in purple, in front of the picture)

- Dr. Zeming Xie, Physician, Department of Breast Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) membership

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) is now officially a member of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). As a comprehensive cancer center, SYSUCC is proud to belong to such an active organization fighting against cancer and will support UICC in its main actions:

- World Cancer Declaration, a call to action to significantly to reduce the global cancer burden

- World cancer day in 4th of February

- World Congress on cancer, every 2 years (Next World Congress in August 27-30, 2012 in Mont-real, Canada)

- Programs against cancer like the global access to pain release initiative

Check out more information on UICC on their website: www.uicc.org!

Sino-US Symposium on Head and Neck Cancer

Date:            January 6-7, 2012
Location:      Guangzhou, China
Hosts:          Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC)
                    MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC)

On January 6, 2012, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer (SYSUCC) officially renewed for another term its sister institution relationship with The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). Alongside with the signing ceremony, both institutions co-hosted a Sino-US Symposium to address latest advances –in basic, translational, and clinical research for head and neck cancers, with a particular focus on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a cancer with an unusually high incidence rate in southern China and Southeast Asia.

Sister institution of MD Anderson Cancer Center, a precious relationship

Agreement signing ceremony between MD Anderson Cancer Center and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

SYSUCC became a sister institution of MDACC in 2003 and the renewal ceremony represented a step forward to build a stronger connection with the prestigious American cancer center. Dr. Yi-Xin Zeng, president of SYSUCC, emphasized, in his speech, on the necessity to join our efforts in the battle to conquer cancer and encouraged to keep dynamic exchanges between both sides, by providing more opportunities for joint-training, common research projects, international seminars etc. Amazing examples like Dr. Zhongzhen Guan, former president of SYSUCC, are the core of the relationship with MDACC. Indeed, Dr. Guan received a WHO scholarship in 1980s to study in MDACC and, upon his return, created in SYSUCC the first anti-cancer drug clinical trial center in China. Several staffs of SYSUCC currently are in MDACC for observership, fellowship or with a status of visiting professor. SYSUCC has been one of the founding members of a currently network of 25 cancer institutions all across the world under management by MDACC’s Global Academic Programs (GAP).

The consul general of the United States in Guangzhou, Mr. Brian L. Goldbeck, echoed Dr. Zeng’s speech remarks by highlighting that the partnership for health between The United States and China was one of the oldest and most successful relationship between both countries, with a broad program involving government, private sector and academic institutions to support joint-training, joint-research and joint program on specific health-related issues. After all, as consul Goldbeck said, “What could be more important than saving, prolonging and improving life?” In particular, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of US, now, has its own representative in Beijing to work on development of the bilateral effort to progress in the fight against cancer.

The cancer moon shot: what would it take to make cancer history?

During the symposium, the recently appointed president of MDACC, Dr. R. DePinho, presented his vision and strategy for MDACC in the near future: the “cancer moon shot”. Acknowledging the current lack of understanding of this complex disease and pointing out the challenges faced for its treatment, he presented the “cancer moon shot”, a plan to pull up together the resources at our disposal, in hope to finally “put cancer in the history books”. His keynote speech is actually reflecting the direction chosen by MDACC for the upcoming year. An ambitious plan, goal-oriented, to synchronize all the partners (academia, pharmaceutical companies, technology companies…) to share their knowledge and work together in the same line of sight: curing cancer.

   Dr. R. DePinho's keynote: the cancer moon shot

Like Dr. DePinho said, “Challenge is not to simply a matter of doing the right experiment but it is also an organizational one, science is too complicated for an institution, even one of tremendous talents and critical mass, to do it alone. We must work together”. The cancer moon shot will first concentrate on five types of cancer, associated with multi-disciplinary think tanks, followed by a concrete scientific and business plan to be implemented by Q3/4 of 2012.

Sino-US Symposium on Head and Neck Cancer

For the occasion, surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists gathered to present their respective findings on head and neck cancer. Several aspects of research and clinical practices on head and neck cancers were addressed, including:

- Relationship between human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal cancer

- Genomics and genetic alterations of oral cancers

- Epidemiology of thyroid carcinoma

- Evidenced-based surgical management of oral tongue cancers

- Sensitivity of head and neck tumors to chemotherapy

- Targeted therapy in squamous-cell carcinoma of head and neck

During the symposium a particular interest was put on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which is, in china, the 11^th most common malignancy. NPC has an unusual geographic repartition and its incidence is especially high in southern China (Provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hong-Kong region). Located in Guangzhou city, SYSUCC treats annually more than 2000 new patients suffering from NPC and has a specific department to treat this disease. The State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, harbored in SYSUCC, also has several focuses on NPC genetics and tumor biology supported by several major grants and numerous standard grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology as well as the Ministry of Health in China in the last ten years. Thus, NPC is extensively studied in SYSUCC, in the hope to understand the underlying mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression for improving the treatment outcome and building a risk-prediction model.

Dr. Yi-Xin Zeng, president of SYSUCC, introduced NPC as a model for cancer research. Indeed, NPC is a very complex disease associated with 3 major etiologies: genomic instability, virus infection (Epstein-Barr virus) and environmental factors. Dr. Yi-Xin Zeng’s group contributed to further uncover the genetic predisposition for NPC by identifying 3 novel loci for susceptibility genes. This result comes from a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving more than 3000 patients and healthy controls. The symposium was also the occasion to present the latest breakthrough in NPC research from both basic (genetics, biology (genesis and metastasis), risk-factors of NPC) and clinical aspects (molecular classification and multi-modality treatment).

Dr. Yi-Xin Zeng's Keynote: NPC a model for cancer research

For more information, please read the scientific report of the symposium published on the Chinese Journal of Cancer CJC, Volume 31, Issue 3, 2012.

Acknowledgments:

- We thank our partners in the Global Academics Programs (GAP) of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who initiated a series of annual Sino-US conferences. This year’s Sino-US Symposium on Head and Neck Cancer was co-hosted by MD Anderson Cancer Center and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

- We thank the Guangdong Provincial Anti-Cancer Association and the Chinese Journal of Cancer (CJC) for co-organizing the symposium

Abbreviations used in the Article:

CJC: Chinese Journal of Cancer

GAP: Global Academic Programs

GWAS: genome-wide association study

MDACC: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

NPC: nasopharyngeal carcinoma

SYSUCC: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

WHO: World Health Organization

2012 SINF results: 3 recipients in SYSUCC！

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) is now on-board for 3 collaborative research projects with the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, USA) through the Sister Institution Network Fund (SINF).

The SINF is an international call for research project in oncology managed by the Global Academic Program (GAP) in MD Anderson Cancer Center. Over the years, MD Anderson has built a network of sister institutions consisting of 25 prestigious cancer centers all across the world. In the perspective of fostering collaborations among this network, MD Anderson launched the SINF in 2010, a program to select innovative research studies involving at least a principal investigator from MD Anderson and one from the sister institution network. Proposed projects can either be from a clinical or basic science approach. Each application goes through a thorough peer-review and a strategic committee with representative from each sister institution. SINF is a highly competitive program whose selected project should demonstrate novelty, significance of the research, ability of the research team, feasibility and relevance of the work to the sister institution network.

2012 marks the second round of SINF funding, with a total of 37 institutions participating worldwide. This year, a total of 48 applications were submitted to the SINF committee and 20 of them were selected to receive funding, most of them involving more than two collaborative institutions. Dr. Oliver Bogler, PhD, Senior Vice President (Academic Affairs) in MD Anderson, summarized this year’s SINF results by pointing out: “In 2012 we saw a shift in the SINF applications, with the overwhelming majority involving multiple institutions, signaling a transition to a true network. The scientific quality and significance of the research projects was also very strong again, making selection of funded projects difficult”. A tough choice for the reviewer then, who awarded 3 Principal Investigators from SYSUCC for the 2012 SINF, namely Dr. Qiang Liu (Professor, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China), Dr. Minshan Chen (Director, Department of Hepatobilliary Surgery) and Dr. Hui-Lan Rao (Associate Professor, Department of Pathology). All our selected projects focus on important oncological topics with investigation of 3 molecular pathways of increasing interest: hedgehog for esophagus cancer, noncanonical NF-kB for lymphoma and hippo for HCC. “SYSUCC participated in many excellent applications, and its faculty formed both regional and global collaborations, setting the stage for some important advances in our joint fight against cancer” commented Dr. Bogler, PhD.

We believe the SINF program is an important and concrete step forward to deepen our relationship with MD Anderson, idea strongly supported by Dr. Yi- Xin Zeng, MD, PhD, president of SYSUCC: “The SINF is definitely based on a smart concept aiming to bridge the sister institutions network. As a fact, any collaboration among organizations must rely on personal contact, research projects bearing common interest from partners in each side could play a fundamental role to bring scientist together. For clinicians and researchers from SYSUCC, SINF also means an opportunity to learn from our colleagues in MD Anderson Cancer Center and other institutions”. Indeed, our 2012 applications involve as well other famous institutions, such as Keio University, China Medical University Hospital, Polish Academy of Science – Warsaw, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and Yonsei University Medical Center. Obviously, such a collaborative network is an opportunity to share our strengths, broaden our range of ability and allowed us this year to reach out for new partners.

List of 2012 SINF grants awarded in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center:

1. Hedgehog pathways and tumor initiating cells in Esophagus Cancer

Principal Investigators:

- Mien-Chie Hung (MD Anderson Cancer Center)

- Qiang Liu (Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center)

- Hideyuki Saya (Keio University)

- Jen-Liangn Su (China Medical University Hospital)

2. Oncogenic activation of noncanonical NF-kB in B-cell lymphomas

Principal Investigators:

- Shao-Cong Sun (MD Anderson Cancer Center)

- Hui-Lan Rao (Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center)

- Przemyslaw Juszczynski (Polish Academy of Science – Warsaw)

- Ye Guo (Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center)

3. Hippo Pathway in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Principal Investigators:

- Ju-Seog Lee (MD Anderson Cancer Center)

- Min-Shan Chen (Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center)

- Young Nyun Park (Yonsei University Medical Center)

More information on the SINF and its recipients are available at www.mdanderson.org/sinf.

Office of International Collaboration and Public Relations

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

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Sun Yat-sen University		Chinese Journal of Cancer

Chinese Anti-Cancer Association		The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Karolinska Institutet		Union for International Cancer Control

Calendar of Events

Nov. 25-26,2011

20-03-2012

Apr. 13-15, 2012

May 14-16, 2012

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Introduction

News Board

2011 Sino-French Workshop in Oncology held successfully!

Oncogenetic consultations in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) membership

Sino-US Symposium on Head and Neck Cancer

2012 SINF results: 3 recipients in SYSUCC！