Conference gathers global experts with focus on precision medicine

2016/05/18

The 2016 Taiwan Joint Cancer Conference took place May 14 and 15 at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei City, bringing together more than 1,500 of the world’s top physicians and oncology researchers to discuss collaborative projects and exchange information at an annual event designed to reflect and lead international medical trends.

The 21st TJCC was organized by the Breast Cancer Society of Taiwan under the theme Precision Medicine. “By utilizing molecular diagnostics, an effective therapy can be accurately determined for each cancer patient, thereby increasing survival rates,” BCST President Huang Chiun-sheng said in his welcome statement to the international audience.

The physician, who doubles as chief of the NTUH Breast Center, drew attention to what he called “a grand milestone of medicine,” a precision medicine initiative that U.S. President Barack Obama introduced last year with a focus on cancer therapy, adding that the innovative ideas and research results presented at the TJCC would help identify the most effective means of treating cancer.

Vice President-elect Chen Chien-jen, a world-renowned epidemiologist and former health minister, also spoke to the gathering of experts. He said in his opening remarks that analysis of big data regarding antigenicity, environmental factors and family history can help predict an individual’s risk of contracting a disease and the appropriate actions needed to prevent or treat it. By placing a stronger focus on such factors, Chen said, doctors can encourage greater participation from patients, which aids in the treatment process.

Chen, who is also the former vice president of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s foremost research institute, called for the increased use of a precision model of personalized, predictive, preventive and participatory treatment, or P4 Medicine. By reducing unnecessary treatment, the model can help enhance the doctor-patient relationship and decrease the financial burdens placed on the National Health Insurance program, he said.

Chen, who will take office as the nation’s vice president May 20, is expected to assume a major role in helping safeguard the country’s universal health care system, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2015.

Widely regarded by the international community as one of Taiwan’s most impressive achievements, the NHI system, established in March 1995, covers more than 99 percent of the nation’s 23.5 million people, granting easy access to a wide range of affordable services from Western and traditional Chinese medicine to dental care. According to Chen, the precision medicine approach, in addition to benefitting patients in their treatment, can also help to alleviate the significant financial burdens placed on the NHI program.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=244805&ctNode=2194&mp=9)