Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology 30:207-00 (2000)
© 2000 Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research
An International Meeting in Beijing
To the Editor:
The International Symposium on Biology of Cancer Prevention and Treatment was held in Beijing on November 1–3, 1999. I served as one of the organizers and would like to report on this interesting meeting.
A year earlier, an International Symposium on Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention was held in Bangkok, co-sponsored by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), the University of Witten (Fritz Bender Foundation) of Germany and the Princess Chulabhorn Research Institute of Thailand. The organizers of this symposium, Dr Enrico Mihich of the Rosewell Park Cancer Insitute, Dr Kurt Zaenker of the University of Witten and myself representing the UICC Epidemiology and Prevention Program, discussed when and where the next meeting should take place. All of us thought that this kind of symposium would be very interesting and fruitful if held in China. We suggested it to Dr You-hui Zhang of the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science who had been invited to the Bangkok symposium. He agreed with the idea and Dr Witten promised that the Fritz Bender Foundation would support it. For the theme of the symposium, Drs Mihich and Zaenker suggested tumor biology and treatment, while Dr Zhang and I insisted the importance of cancer prevention particularly in China. ‘The Biology of Cancer Prevention and Treatment’ was finally decided upon.
Communication between the international organizers was achieved with E-mail and fax. Dr Zhang served as the chairman of the local organizing committee. The UICC National Committee of Japan supported the travel expenses of Japanese participants, Dr Tadao Kakozoe of the National Cancer Center Hospital, Dr Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Sapporo Cancer Seminar and myself. The Fritz Bender Foundation covered the travel expenses of the other invited speakers from abroad.
The meeting venue was the China Resources Hotel, a four-star hotel with a large conference hall, located a little away from downtown Beijing. The symposium was attended by nearly 300 participants including 40 people from outside China. Following Dr Zhang’s welcoming address, Dr Shu-jun Cheng of the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science gave a keynote lecture on molecular and cytogenetic alterations in early-stage human lung carcinogenesis.
Six sessions were held during 3 days: ‘Epidemiology and tumor progression’, ‘Tumor biology and markers’, ‘Cancer etiology and cancer prevention’, ‘Pharmacological intervention’, ‘Immunomodulation and immunotherapy’ and ‘Experimental therapeutics and chemoprevention’. Among all the presentations, that by Dr Yasmin Thanavala, Rosewell Cancer Institute, entitled ‘Edible vaccine for hepatitis B’, was the most impressive. She commenced the talk with a slide ‘Dream has become a reality!’ She had already finished animal experiments and confirmed that the titer of hepatitis B antibody had been elevated significantly in rats fed with ‘transgenic potatoes’. Her challenging study has been supported by the National Cancer Institute and she is ready to start a phase I trial on humans. Her dream is to develop an edible vaccine in the form of weaning food made of transgenic bananas. If it was developed, it would become easy to distribute vaccines even to remote communities in tropical areas of developing countries where a cold chain to keep regular vaccines has not yet been established.
Although about 150 poster abstracts were submitted by Chinese researchers and published in the abstracts book, only a few posters were actually displayed. It seemed a Chinese tradition to submit an abstract to justify their participation in the meeting and to get some academic credit. Another interesting thing to mention is ‘The Second National Meeting of Cancer Research Among Middle to Young Cancer Researchers’. This domestic cancer research meeting was held in the same hotel following the international symposium. The definition of ‘middle to young’ was age younger than 45 years. Most of the participants seemed to satisfy the condition and only a few senior researchers attended this meeting as members of the selection committee of awards to outstanding young researchers.
All overseas participants arrived at the old terminal of the Beijing International Airport and departed from the entirely new spacious terminal which opened on December 1, 1999. The weather in Beijing was nice during the daytime but was slightly chilly in the morning and evening. We hope that the Beijing Symposium has stimulated Chinese cancer researchers and contributed to the promotion of cancer research in China.
Suketami Tominaga
Director, Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute
.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||