Research points way forward in cancer fight

The main challenges in liver cancer treatment lie in reducing the recurrence rate of tumors, strengthening early detection and diagnosis, and improving conversion treatment for mid- and late-stage patients, leading experts said in a media interview on Wednesday, as part of this year's national cancer prevention and treatment promotion week.

Fan Jia, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a top expert in liver cancer, said that surgery has the best therapeutic effect on liver cancer, but the recurrence rate within five years of surgery is around 50 percent.

The number of new liver cancer cases and deaths in China account for approximately 45 percent and 47 percent respectively of the world's total each year, according to the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology.

Fan, president of Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital, said the institution has functioned as the Chinese site for participation in the multicenter international Phase-III clinical trial of a combination therapy to treat hepatocellular carcinoma.

More than 70 percent of the 668 patients participating in the research came from Asia Pacific regions, including China.

The trial results showed that combination therapy has exhibited statistically significant improvements in reducing the risk of cancer recurrence, as reported by multinational pharmaceutical company Roche, the therapy's developer, during the 2023 annual conference of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"Such therapies are expected to bring more treatment options for patients with high recurrence risk after surgery," said Zhou Jian, vice-president of Zhongshan Hospital and director of the hospital's liver tumor surgery department.