Lung cancer is currently the number one cancer killer worldwide, with more deaths from lung cancer each year than from breast, bowel and prostate cancers combined. As a result, medical doctors around the world are heavily involved in lung cancer research and investment. At the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (hereafter referred to as ASCO) held from June 3-7, eight of the most important clinical studies of the year were selected for the conference presentations on the topic of lung cancer. Professor Tension from the Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University gave an INFORM research presentation at the conference, and the research results of Chinese scholars were once again presented on the international stage. The reporter interviewed Professor Wu Yilong and Professor Zhou Cai Cun, renowned experts in the field of lung cancer in China, on the trend of lung cancer treatment and the key points of lung cancer prevention at the Roche special conference. Treatment trends: Individualized treatment has become the leading direction The theme of this year’s ASCO annual meeting is “Patients, Pathways, Progress”, of which “pathways” is the most important. The meaning of “pathways” here is twofold: understanding more molecular pathways that lead to tumor invasion, growth and metastasis, so as to block the cancer pathway; and adopting more new pathways to treat patients, so that more patients can benefit. In the past, lung cancer was regarded as a single disease. Nowadays, lung cancer treatment has moved to a new era of molecular typing, and individualized treatment guided by biomarkers will become the direction of lung cancer treatment. Through this year’s ASCO, it is easy to see that one of the main directions of current research is to try to use less toxic regimens instead of more toxic ones, such as targeted therapy instead of chemotherapy. This is also in line with one of the themes of this year’s conference – Pathways.” In the past, the main treatments for lung cancer were surgery, radiotherapy and traditional chemotherapy. With the advent of targeted drugs, there is hope for survival for patients who have lost the chance of surgery or failed chemotherapy. Compared with the traditional chemotherapy, which is to kill a thousand by mistake but not to let one go, targeted therapy works directly on tumor cells and kills them by inhibiting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) of tumor cells, which significantly improves patients’ quality of life. Previously, a clinical treatment study conducted by experts from the Chinese Thoracic Oncology Collaborative Group confirmed that the use of first-line targeted drugs to treat non-small cell lung cancer patients with mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor activity can improve patients’ survival time without disease progression by nearly three times compared to conventional chemotherapy. The EURTAC study, presented by Western medical experts at this ASCO Congress, confirmed similar results. It is a great success of clinical pathway research that studies from the East and West have come up with the same results. Prof. Yilong Wu pointed out that individualized treatment can not only bring benefits to patients in terms of efficacy, but the associated costs can also be further reduced. Based on this, Guangzhou has included new targeted drugs for lung cancer in its medical insurance to help more patients with the indicated disease to get the right drug as soon as possible and to reduce the cost of treatment for patients. Prevention: Early detection of lung cancer is difficult only by chest X-ray. There is an old Chinese saying that “the upper medicine treats the untreated disease”, and it is best to prevent the disease if you are not sick. But unfortunately, we are still struggling in cancer prevention today because it is very difficult to change many things, such as quitting smoking. Lung cancer has a very big relationship with smoking, smoking by itself, second-hand smoke, third-hand smoke, all have a relationship, but the number of smokers in China is still huge and poorly controlled. According to Professor Zhou Cai Cun, director of the Institute of Oncology at Tongji University School of Medicine, the increase in female lung cancer patients is related to passive smoking. In addition, as domestic “cooks”, women are often exposed to grease and smoke, which also increases the risk of lung cancer. Research has confirmed that the following risk factors are closely related to the development of lung cancer: Smoking: It is the most important factor in the development of lung cancer. In most countries around the world, 90% of lung cancers are caused by smoking; secondhand smoke: about 25% of non-small cell lung cancer cases among non-smokers are caused by secondhand smoke. Environmental factors: Air pollution (such as car exhaust) is also a risk factor, and exposure to radiation-emitting decorative materials can increase the risk of developing the disease. Zhou Cai Cun pointed out that early detection of lung cancer is difficult due to the lack of specific symptoms, and there is no economical and easily promoted screening method to detect lung cancer early. “Nowadays, many organizations will organize a physical examination once a year, but it is not a cancer checkup, but only a health checkup, and it is possible to find high blood pressure and high blood sugar, but it is very difficult to find early cancer. For example, it is difficult to detect early lung cancer by simply taking a fluoroscopy. Therefore, we recommend that people over 40 years old who smoke for many years and have a family history of tumor have a low-dose spiral CT once a year, which has a high resolution and can detect crystals less than 4 mm. The reason why low-dose spiral CT is used is that low dose can reduce the damage to human body.”