Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation Seminar

2013年9月9日星期一

Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation Seminar

The Seminar on "Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation" was organized by Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology Limited (HKIB), Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) and Chinese Preventive Medicine Association (CPMA) (Hong Kong) on 8 Sep 2013. The seminar aimed to raise health awareness on cancer prevention and rehabilitation in Hong Kong and China.

Firstly, Prof. Christopher HK Cheng (Managing Director, HKIB) gave an opening address. Prof. Cheng thanked all supporting parties to make this seminar success and believed that such Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation experience in Mainland China would be very valuable to us in Hong Kong.

Mr. Allen Ma (CEO, HKSTPC) gave a welcome speech. He introduced science park infrastructure to assist biotechnology development and then told us a story that Newton was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenly thought of the Universal Law of Gravitation. But Allen didn’t believe that story is true. It is not possible to discover a new theory through a single event and individually. Then Allen believed that innovation come from mass collaboration.

Group photo for all guests and speakers

The first speaker was Prof. An Li SHI (Chairman, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (Rehabilitation) Chinese Cancer Rehabilitation Society) and his presentation named “Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation: China’s Current Status”. She introduced that most cancer death rate in China was Lung Cancer in 2008. It was related to smoking habit in Chinese. However, cure process was not only for cancer treatment but also included rehabilitation. China government would enhance the functions of NGO for solving society problems.

Then Prof. Shi Ying YU (Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology) continued to share cancer burden and tendency in China. The global ranking of cancer incidence and mortality rate of China was discussed. For Cancer Incidence per 100,000, it was 180.96 and ranked 123 (Total 184). For Cancer deaths per 100,000, it was 124.60 and ranked 159 (Total 184). It indicated that our treatment was behind the developed countries.

Prof. YU introduced some cancer prevention in China as follows:
1) Primary Prevention
- Smoking cessation
- HBV vaccines
2) Secondary Prevention
- Cancer screening
3) Tertiary Prevention & Therapy
- Improve cancer diagnosis

The second speaker was Prof. Kin-Ping WONG (Adjunct Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco; Chief Scientific Officer of Lotus Innovative Health Ltd.) and his topic entitled “Angiogenesis & Cancer”

The Angiogenesis Process was discussed.
(Remark: I would like to quote the following diagram which was produced by The Angiogenesis Foundation at http://www.angio.org/understanding/process.php to explain the process.)

Prof. Wong introduced different angiogenesis growth factors named Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) including Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs), Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF), Transforming Growth Factors (TGFs), Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIFs), Placental Growth Factors (PGFs) and Interleukin-8 (IL-8). Cancer cells required the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) to nourish growth, and to spread through metastasis. Therefore, inhibition of angiogenesis starved tumor and prevented metastasis.

The following table of TCMs is angiogenesis inhibitors.

Prof. KWAN Hoi Shan (Head, Graduate Division of Life Sciences, CUHK; Director, Research Centre , CUHK) and his presentation named "Microbiome, Probiotics and Cancer". Prof. Kwan explained cancer was abnormal cells divided without control and able to invade other tissues. He said colorectal cancer (CRC) was the most common malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract. The top three lifestyle factors to cancers were Tobacco, Over-weight and Low fruit & vegetable diet. E. Coil with polyketide synthase would induced CRC. Finally, Prof. Kwan summarized that microbiome changes in colon cancer, bad bacteria in microbiome may cause cancer. Probiotics could be used to manipulate microbiome to benefit our healt, even prevent cancer.