【视频】

 Koichi Tanaka

Academician of the Japan Academy, former president of Kyoto University Hospital, Internationally esteemed liver and kidney transplant surgeon

On November 10, the 2019 China-Japan Advanced Medical and New Drug R&D Summit and Achievements Transformation Conference was held in Chengdu. Koichi Tanaka, Academician of the Japan Academy, former president of Kyoto University Hospital, and an internationally esteemed liver and kidney transplant surgeon attend the conference and gave an interview to The Cover.

Mr. Tanaka said that in our combat against cancer, our current methods are mostly chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. With the development of medicine, immunotherapy will gain growing attention and popularity. However, relevant data remains insufficient and immunotherapy is still in the stage of research.

Going forward, the development of medicine will focus more on prevention, including that of cancer and common diseases. Mr. Tanaka said that he hoped to work with Chinese experts to improve the five-year survival rate of cancer by about 10%. To achieve this, they must first start with treatment methods, improve cancer treatment technique, and explore new cancer treatment. Also, related methods and standards must be put into place.

As an expert on liver and kidney transplantation, Mr. Tanaka believes that insufficient donors for organ transplants are a common challenge face by the world. Although xenotransplantation is a novel idea for organ transplantation, and some scientists are currently researching on the use of animals to cultivate human organs, Mr. Tanaka didn’t fully support xenotransplantation because of its questionable safety, effectiveness, long-term impact, and ethics involved. Therefore, xenotransplantation still needs to overcome huge obstacles ethically and technologically.

Source: The Cover

© SCIMEA and The Cover