2019 NSFC-NCI Integrative Oncology Workshop was hosted from April 23 to 24 in Beijing by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM). It was jointly sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and National Cancer Institute of the United States (NCI) in order to promote mutual learning between Chinese and American scientists in the field of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, enable the existing medical care system to offer more accurate, more efficient and safer diagnosis and treatment, and relieve family and society of their heavy burdens caused by critical and intractable diseases.

　　President Xu Anlong of BUCM delivered a welcome speech at the opening ceremony., In which he expressed his heartfelt gratitude to NSFC and NCI in support of the workshop, and warmly welcomed the experts from the United States and China who participated in the conference. After introducing the background of this workshop, President Xu stated his hope that a platform for exchange at home and abroad would be set up to promote the innovative research into life science related to traditional Chinese medicine. Besides, he hoped the practical and efficient appropriate TCM techniques would integrate with WM diagnostic and treatment plan to form the real plan of precision medicine to further the prevention and treatment of cancer and safeguard human health. He believed that the workshop would offer a feast of academic ideas in the field of medicine thanks to the outstanding attending experts and diversified topics for discussion. He wished the seminar a complete success and the international experts a pleasant stay in China.

　　The next speaker was Dr. Dan XI, Director of Research Development and Support Program at Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NCI, National Institutes of Health (NIH). She reviewed the cooperation between NCI and China in cancer research, and expressed her thanks to the researchers from the two countries for their selfless dedication. She hoped that experts from China and the United States would extensively exchange views at the workshop, and reach a consensus on the role of Chinese herbal medicine and microbiota in cancer treatment, on TCM’s time-space concept in the treatment of cancer, and on cancer treatment based on precision medicine and large data to lay a foundation for future cooperation.

　　Yang Junlin, Deputy Director of the Bureau of International Cooperation of NSFC, said in his speech that experts from China and the United States have begun to pay close attention to cancer treatment with age-old TCM. For example, 210 research teams from the two countries have carried out researches on 25 types of cancer. NSFC and NCI have made a lot of efforts to build a good platform for cooperation. Traditional Chinese medicine enjoys unique strengths and great prospects in the treatment of cancer. He hoped that communication and exchanges between researchers from both sides at the workshop would spark new ideas and generate wisdom, based on which long-term cooperation can be established.

　　In the course of the conference, experts such as Liu Xiuping, Director of Division of American and Australasian Affairs, NSFC, Dan XI from NCI, and Matthew Brown, Director of the Beijing Office of National Institutes of Health of the United States, reviewed the progress in medical research cooperation between China and the United States, the exchange of medical scholars between the two countries, and the cooperative anti-cancer research projects and the funding they received.

　　Nearly 30 experts were invited to deliver academic speeches at the workshop from Harvard Medical School, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Pittsburgh University, George Washington University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of Cornell University, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Beckman Institute, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University, The Second Military Medical University, Capital Medical University, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

　　About 100 young scholars from BUCM and its affiliated hospitals participated in the workshop. In the Q&A session, experts and young scholars had wonderful academic exchange and interaction.

　　Cancer has always been a top cause of death. Since the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of important expositions around the central strategies for the establishment of “Healthy China”. At the National Health Conference held in 2016, General Secretary Xi proposed that “prevention and control of critical illnesses is key to protecting people’s health, and prevention and control measures should be optimized to minimize the incidence of such diseases among the population”. He also stressed that “primary care at the grassroots level must be the focus, reform and innovation should be the driving force, prevention should be the priority, and both Chinese and Western medicine should be used, so as to shift the emphasis from disease treatment to preventive health management.” The workshop has established an important platform for Chinese and American scientists to share their views and findings on cancer prevention and treatment, and provided rational guidance for relevant theoretical exploration and clinical practice.