Foreword to the Holistic Integrative Oncology

1 First, the effect of cancer prevention and treatment needs to be improved The disease of cancer has long existed since ancient times, and the evolution of human civilization is also accompanied by a protracted struggle between human beings and cancer. However, compared with other diseases, the battle against cancer is almost the most difficult and frustrating one that human beings have encountered. Malignant tumor at advanced stage has almost become an unresolved problem in the world for a long time because of its generalization, heterogeneity, multifactorial nature and refractory.

1 First, the effect of cancer prevention and treatment needs to be improved The disease of cancer has long existed since ancient times, and the evolution of human civilization is also accompanied by a protracted struggle between human beings and cancer. However, compared with other diseases, the battle against cancer is almost the most difficult and frustrating one that human beings have encountered. Malignant tumor at advanced stage has almost become an unresolved problem in the world for a long time because of its generalization, heterogeneity, multifactorial nature and refractory.
2 Second, integrative medicine needs to be popularized After decades of medical practice, medical pioneers at home and abroad have invariably focused on making breakthroughs through "integrative medicine", which came into being in response to the development of the times. It is the inevitable direction and an important way for future medical development, and is a new medical system that leads the future. At present, we have made great progress in the field of integrative oncology in terms of discipline construction and clinical practice, but there is still a need for more systematic, in-depth and worldwide discipline construction, scientific research cooperation and clinical promotion.

Third, China's voice needs to be louder and stronger
China is the country with the largest population in the world. Generally speaking, for every four new cancer patients in the world, one is in China; for every three cancer deaths, one is in China. Chinese people's physique, eating habits, lifestyles, genetic background and biological information show their own characteristics. China also has abundant case resources, a large number of original research results, and a proven and effective Chinese medicine treatment system and cancer prevention and control system. Therefore, China should share its data, research results and experience with the world and participate in the construction of the global cancer prevention and control system. However, we were not doing a good enough job in the past days.
To address these three pain points in the development of the industry, China Anti-Cancer Association, as an academic organization of oncology with the longest history, the largest scale and the strongest academic influence in China, founded a brand-new academic journal-Holistic Integrative Oncology (HIO) in 2022.
As the editor-in-chief of this journal, I took the lead in proposing the concept of integrative medicine in China in 2012, and put forward the general idea of medical development: translational medicine is the path, evidencebased medicine is the rule, precision medicine is the road sign, and integrative medicine is the ideal. We have worked on the discipline construction of integrative oncology in the past decade. Taking "all people", "whole body", "whole process" and "holography" as the overall concept, we have systematically carried out the work of "becoming a large association", "holding a large-scale conference", "writing a great book", "preparing authoritative guidelines" and "founding an influential journal". To date, we have integrated a wealth of resources, established a team, received a number of achievements and gained a lot of experience. Based on China's reality and absorbing the essence of the world, we have established our own cancer prevention and treatment guideline system-CACA Guidelines and started to make our voice louder and stronger enough to be heard by China and the world in 2022. We convey our voice from China, and make it heard by the whole world. It will focus on the achievements and experiences of China, but it also has universal value worldwide. The world's progress cannot be made without the achievements and contributions of all nations. Only when we share with each other can we advance together.
How can a drop of water never dry up? The answer is: integration into the sea. HIO is not alone. It is backed by 320,000 professional members of the China Anti-Cancer Association, more than 10 million Chinese medical workers and 1.4 billion Chinese people, with their vision and determination to fight against cancer together with the other people of the world. There is also strong support from oncology peers all over the world. So, integration into the broad sea doesn't mean sinking without trace, but marks a new start for our journey to a promising future.