On October 8, Professor Li Xun, Vice President of Lanzhou University (LZU) and President of the First Hospital of Lanzhou University (LZUFH), and his four colleagues were invited to Lyon, France to carry out a friendly visit and academic exchange with International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Elisabete Weiderpass, Director of IARC, highly praised LZUFH’s work of the early screening in the upper gastrointestinal cancer under the leadership of Prof. Li, and fully affirmed the effectiveness, and significance of 51 cancer screening sites established by the team in Gansu Province. Prof. Weiderpass also mentioned that China became the 27th member of IARC in 2021, marking its formal entry into the international stage of tumour prevention and treatment. She hoped that through this visit, IARC and LZU, LZUFH will continue to have friendly and cooperative relations to make breakthroughs in the epidemiology, pathogenesis, screening and validation of early cancer markers of high-incidence cancers in the western region of China, and to deepen the cooperation and exchanges between the two sides in terms of talent training and project reporting.

Accompanied by Clément Chauvet, Director of IARC’s Strategic Engagement and External Relations Division, Professor Li and his team went to the headquarters, knowing the building layout and construction concepts, and visiting IARC’s biospecimen repository, sample processing and analysis laboratories. In addition, LZUFH’s team shared their progress in early screening in the upper gastrointestinal cancer, the R&D of early diagnostic kits for gastric cancer, the early diagnosis and treatment of urban cancer, etc. Both sides shared their progress and successful experiences in multidisciplinary teamwork, cancer screening, early cancer biomarker screening, assessment of high-risk factors, and basic research in gastrointestinal tumours and lung cancer in recent years.

Prof. Li said that this successful visit to IARC will lay a solid foundation for LZUFH to carry out in-depth epidemiological research on high incidence of tumours in western China, to further improve the capacity of tumour prevention, and control, to strengthen international cooperation and talent cultivation in research projects of tumour prevention and treatment, and to establish relationship with the top medical colleges and clinical research institutes in the world.

LZUFH delegation expressed that through this academic exchange, they once again understand the cutting-edge concepts and professionalism of the IARC expert team, and would bring the results and ideas back to the hospital, and form a new research synergy as soon as possible to carry out cooperative exchanges on a continuous basis.