Every year, nearly 24,000 people in Vietnam die from lung cancer.

The conference is an opportunity for Vietnamese experts to update many advances in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. Photo: TG/Vietnam+

According to the World Cancer Registry Globocan 2020, lung cancer is one of the three most common cancers and the leading cause of cancer death globally.

In Vietnam, lung cancer ranks second in new cases with more than 26,000 cases and nearly 24,000 deaths annually in both sexes, after liver cancer.

The above information was given by Associate Professor Pham Cam Phuong - Director of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (Bach Mai Hospital) at the scientific conference updating advances in molecular biology, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer taking place over 2 days, March 9-10, in Hanoi.

Analyzing the current status of cancer, Associate Professor Pham Cam Phuong said that cancer is on the rise, the rate of cancer is getting younger and lung cancer is no exception. Notably, recently, in actual treatment, doctors have noticed that the rate of rejuvenation in lung cancer is higher, especially the number of women with lung cancer is also showing signs of increasing, while this disease has long been more common in men than women.

Associate Professor Phuong said that with lung cancer, if the 5-year survival rate in the early stages is 90%, then in the late stages this rate is only less than 10%.

In recent years, thanks to advances in diagnosis and treatment, lung cancer can be detected at an early stage, increasing the cure rate as well as prolonging life, improving the quality of life for patients in the late stages. About 10 years ago, patients with late-stage lung cancer with metastatic lesions in the lungs, pleura, bone metastases, liver metastases, and brain metastases usually lived for only more than 6 months.

According to experts, to prevent lung cancer, each person needs to limit substances and agents that cause cancer such as tobacco, food, toxic chemicals... Besides, people also need to maintain a healthy lifestyle, eat scientifically, exercise regularly and have regular health check-ups...

Regarding the signs of lung cancer, experts say that people with lung cancer often have red flags such as: frequent coughing, coughing up blood, chest pain, occasional convulsions, and especially rapid weight loss. Some patients lose up to 10kg in 3 months.

Therefore, the conference is an opportunity for Vietnamese experts to update many advances in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. In particular, these advances have gone deep into molecular biology, gene technology, and cells, thereby assessing what gene mutations this patient has, thereby having targeted treatment methods, effective immunotherapy, prolonging life and improving the quality of treatment for the patient.

At the conference, many in-depth scientific reports, updating the latest advances in the field of lung cancer diagnosis and treatment by foreign experts and leading hospitals in the country were presented such as: surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, molecular biology...

According to Vietnam+