HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese and French health experts exchanged professional experience on cancer control and prevention, with a focus on lung cancer, at the second Việt Nam–France conference on cancer, which opened Wednesday in Hà Nội.

Speaking at the event, Permanent Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Viết Tiến said the conference was a good chance for local and international experts to develop an overall picture about lung cancer control, prevention and treatment.

“Cancer has been a big burden for many nations in the world, especially poor and developing countries,” said Tiến. “In Việt Nam, cancer is increasing nationwide, requiring special attention of the whole society. In 2018, the country reported 164,671 new cancer cases and 114,871 cancer deaths.”

More than 300,000 people currently are living with cancer in Việt Nam. Most cancer patients were diagnosed in the later stages of the disease, making treatment more difficult and expensive, said Tiến.

The National K (Cancer) Hospital director Trần Văn Thuấn said lung cancer was the most common cancer worldwide among both men and women. According to GLOBOCAN 2018, there are about 2.09 million new lung cancer cases and 1.76 million lung cancer deaths yearly in the world. In Việt Nam, there are 23,667 new lung cancer cases and more than 20,000 annual deaths.

“Strengthening doctors’ professional knowledge and people’s awareness on preventing, detecting and treating lung cancer is very important, requiring more attention from the health sector and the whole society,” Thuấn said.  

During the three-day event, participants will share experiences, provide updates on the latest research on lung cancer risks prevention, advanced diagnosis and treatment methods. They will discuss instructions for diagnosing and treating lung and colorectal cancers, patient classification, radiotherapy and chemotherapy methods and geriatric cancer. The conference also is an important foundation for the development of Việt Nam’s national lung cancer strategy.

Health has been one of the most important areas of collaboration between Việt Nam and France in recent years. More than 3,000 Vietnamese doctors were trained in France and more than 1,500 doctors were trained in Việt Nam with support from French experts. — VNS