On November 8, the “Interview with Famous Doctors” column of GANOHERB invited Professor Huang Cheng, the chief expert of Fujian Cancer Hospital, to bring you the fourth live broadcast of the topic of “lung cancer”-”What is precise diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer?” . Let us recall the exciting content of this issue.

Precise Diagnosis and Treatment
 
What is “Precise Diagnosis”?
 
Regarding this question, Professor Huang explained: “Tumors are divided into three types:’early’,'mid-term’ and ’advanced’. To diagnose a tumor, the first step is to determine whether it is benign or malignant and which type it belongs to. Then conduct pathological analysis to determine which type of pathology it belongs to. Finally, it is necessary to find out which gene is causing the tumor. This is the basic concept of our precise diagnosis.”
 
What is “Precise Treatment”?
 
On the basis of pathological diagnosis, staging diagnosis and genetic diagnosis, treatments for different gene types have achieved very good long-term curative effects. Only treatment that achieves this goal can be regarded as “precise treatment”.
 
How much do you know about “lung cancer”?
 
In China, lung cancer is the malignant tumor with the highest incidence and highest mortality. According to the figures released by the “2019 Annual Meeting of Thoracic Surgery Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association”, among the top ten most prevalent cancers in China, lung cancer ranks first for men and second for women. Some experts even predicted at the China Lung Cancer Summit Forum held in Beijing that lung cancer patients in China will reach 1 million by 2025, making China the world’s number one lung cancer country. 
This picture is taken from Professor Huang‘s PPT on “What is the precise diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer?” 
 
This picture is taken from Professor Huang‘s PPT on “What is the precise diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer?” 
 
Precise diagnosis is the magic weapon to defeat lung cancer!
 
“Only precise diagnosis can be regarded as ’scientific fortune-telling.’” Professor Huang said that the so-called “scientific fortune-telling” must be based on various evidences. Among them, diagnosis is very important. Only when the patient’s condition is diagnosed clearly can standard treatment be started.
 
“Gene testing” for precise diagnosis
 
“Have you undergone genetic testing?” Doctors usually ask this question when many lung cancer patients go to the hospital.
 
“At present, more than half of lung cancer genes are well understood. For example, if genes such as EGFR and ALK are diagnosed, you may not need chemotherapy as long as you take some medicine. This applies even to some advanced lung cancer patients. “Professor Huang said.

This picture is taken from Professor Huang‘s PPT on “What is the precise diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer?” 
 
When referring to the importance of lung cancer genetic testing, Professor Huang said, “Once the genetic testing results of lung cancer are confirmed, we can turn some lung cancers into ‘chronic diseases’ through gene therapy. So, what is a ‘chronic disease’? Only the survival rate of a patient with cancer exceeds five years, the disease he or she suffers from can be called a“chronic disease.” The efficacy of gene therapy for patients is very ideal.
 
Ten years ago, there was no genetic test. At that time, there was only chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer. Now it is completely different. Technology has been advancing. I believe that in the next ten years, tumor treatment will have even greater changes. “
 
Multidisciplinary team: the guarantee of standardized diagnosis and treatment!
 
Precise diagnosis and precise treatment complement each other and are indispensable. When talking about precise treatment, Professor Huang said, “There are two ways to treat tumors: one is standardized treatment while the other is individualized treatment. Now there are new drugs with good effects but immunotherapy is not well understood at present, and clinical trials must be done to specifically choose how to treat. This requires a very experienced professional doctor to help you choose. However, a doctor is not enough. “Now there is a very fashionable approach called “multidisciplinary team diagnosis and treatment”, where a team will diagnose a patient. The diagnosis of lung cancer needs multidisciplinary participation so that more precise treatment can be obtained.”
 
Advantages of the “diagnosis and treatment of a multidisciplinary team” model:
 
1. It avoids the limitations of one-sided diagnosis and treatment in various specialties.
2. Surgery does not solve all problems, but the appropriate treatment is the best.
3. Physicians often overlook the role of radiotherapy and interventional therapy.
4. The multidisciplinary team adopts standardized diagnosis and treatment and reasonable layout and advocates the concept of whole-process management.
5. It ensures that the most suitable treatment is given to the patient at the right time.
Lung cancer multidisciplinary team of Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital
 
Lung cancer multidisciplinary team of The Affiliated Xiamen Humanity Hospital of Fujian Medical University
 
Following authoritative guidelines and expert consensus, the participation of multidisciplinary teams throughout the process is the guarantee of standardized diagnosis and treatment!
This picture is taken from Professor Huang’s PPT on “What is the precise diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer?” 
 
Ten years ago, lung cancer was basically treated with traditional treatments. Nowadays, immunotherapy and targeted therapy break the tradition and are now very important “two sharp swords” in the treatment of lung cancer. Many advanced lung cancers can be transformed into “chronic diseases”, bringing new hope to lung cancer patients. This is the progress and development brought by science and technology.
 
↓↓↓
If you want to know more about the live broadcast, please press and hold the QR code below to view the live broadcast review.