AstraZeneca Launches County-Level Oncology Innovation Center Initiative with Cross-Sector Partners

Shanghai, September 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- During the 22nd National Clinical Oncology Conference and the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) Annual Academic Meeting held in Xiamen, AstraZeneca, together with cross-sector partners, officially launched the Primary Care Oncology Innovation Center project. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, 5G, and big data, the initiative aims to establish integrated diagnosis and treatment centers for multiple cancer types—including lung cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer—as well as centers for the prevention and control of gastrointestinal tumors at the county level. These centers provide comprehensive solutions covering screening, testing, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and rehabilitation. With the goal of promoting the decentralization of high-quality medical resources, the project facilitates collaboration among hospitals at all levels and supports the development of county-level medical consortia and medical communities. At AstraZeneca’s specialized satellite symposium on county-level healthcare, experts from various oncology fields, county hospital directors, and oncologists offered recommendations for building oncology specialties in primary care institutions and discussed the importance of early cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment for high-risk populations in county hospitals.

In January this year, the National Cancer Center released the latest national cancer statistics, showing that malignant tumors accounted for 23.91% of all causes of death among residents, with rural tumor mortality rates even higher than those in urban areas.^[1]. Professor Liu Wei, Associate Chief Physician in the Department of Medical Oncology at Huanghua People's Hospital, remarked with emotion during his presentation at the conference: "It is extremely difficult for people in grassroots communities to access medical care. Grassroots hospitals suffer from a shortage of specialized oncology resources, and most fundamentally, there are very few physicians capable of providing adequate care. Even when patients are referred from tertiary hospitals to county-level hospitals, many conditions remain beyond the diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities of these institutions, resulting in suboptimal outcomes."

Collaborate with Superior Hospitals and Leverage Advanced Technology to Rapidly Enhance the Service Capabilities of County-Level Oncologists

There is a significant unmet need in county-level healthcare in China, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Primary care physicians face heavy workloads, have limited professional capabilities, exhibit relatively low motivation, and lack clear, intuitive management tools. Therefore, improving professional education and clinical competence among doctors at county, township, and village hospitals has become an urgent priority.At the conference, Professor Wu Yilong, Lifetime Director of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, stated, “The National Health Commission of China is committed to implementing the ‘Healthy China 2030’ initiative, a crucial component of which is ensuring that patients with serious illnesses can receive adequate medical care within their home counties. To achieve this goal, we must ensure standardized quality among county-level physicians, promote standardization across all medical departments, and guarantee that primary care providers receive the same educational training as those in other hospitals. In recent years, medical science has advanced rapidly. In oncology, beyond conventional standardized treatments, many new technologies are being integrated into clinical practice, such as multi-platform remote consultations and artificial intelligence (AI). Leveraging these technologies and tools can help county-level hospitals deliver services comparable to those offered by major tertiary hospitals, thereby driving the rapid development of county-level healthcare.”

Professor Ye Dingwei, Vice President of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, stated, “The establishment of grassroots oncology innovation centers can more efficiently facilitate the transfer of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic technologies from tertiary hospitals to primary care institutions. This represents a process through which technology reaches hospitals and, ultimately, patients. Leveraging the existing prostate cancer multidisciplinary team (MDT) platform to enable medical technology transfer can significantly support oncologists at the grassroots level. It is an effective approach to alleviating overcrowding in large hospitals and accelerating the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment.”

Professor Hu Xichun, Director of the Department of Medical Oncology at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, also stated：“We aim to leverage three key platforms—the Primary Care Oncology Innovation Center, public media, and WeChat friend groups—to disseminate the latest concepts in the differential diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer to county-level hospitals, thereby truly enabling breast cancer patients to receive comprehensive care for major illnesses within their counties.”

Implementing Early Screening and Diagnosis of Cancer at the County Level to Focus on Improving the Five-Year Survival Rate of Cancer Patients

The “Opinions of the State Council on Implementing the Healthy China Action” state: “By 2030, the overall five-year survival rate for cancer shall be no less than 46.6%.” Early diagnosis and early treatment are key factors in cancer prevention and control, and the “Healthy China Action” explicitly emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for high-risk populations. Professor Cang Shundong, Director of the Oncology Department at Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, stated, “Early diagnosis and treatment for high-risk lung cancer populations can increase the survival period of Chinese cancer patients by nearly 30%–40%.” Taking lung cancer as an example, currently, nearly 80% of patients in China are diagnosed at middle or late stages, resulting in a poor prognosis and an average five-year survival rate of only 16.1%. If detected at Stage I and treated according to standardized protocols, the five-year survival rate can be significantly increased to 70%–90%. Therefore, achieving early screening, early diagnosis, and early treatment for high-risk populations is a crucial prerequisite for improving the five-year cancer survival rate. At this satellite symposium, leading experts from various oncology fields unanimously affirmed the importance of early cancer screening at the primary care level. They advocated for establishing integrated multi-cancer diagnosis and treatment centers in county-level hospitals to provide standardized tumor screening and testing methods, thereby realizing early screening and early diagnosis of cancer at the grassroots level.

Establishing an Integrated Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center at county-level hospitals enables patients to complete specialized registration, chest CT scans, biopsies, pathological examinations, and genetic testing in a one-stop manner, thereby obtaining rapid and accurate diagnoses. Leveraging AI-assisted image interpretation systems, the efficiency and accuracy of chest CT readouts will be significantly enhanced. For complex cases, physicians can refer to the interpretation reports and diagnostic and treatment recommendations provided by the system, or connect with experts for consultation and support.

Yin Min, General Manager of AstraZeneca’s Oncology Business Unit, stated, “AstraZeneca remains committed to a patient-centric approach, addressing the needs of patients throughout their entire disease journey. We not only provide innovative anti-cancer therapies but also collaborate with cross-sector partners to establish an integrated diagnosis and treatment model, offering comprehensive chronic disease management solutions for cancer patients. By supporting primary healthcare institutions in establishing county-level oncology innovation centers, we aim to bring standardized oncology care and innovative management models to grassroots hospitals, thereby benefiting a vast number of cancer patients in these communities, improving five-year survival rates, and contributing to the early realization of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ initiative.”

[1]Analysis of the Epidemiology of Malignant Tumors in China in 2015, Chinese Journal of Oncology, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2019