The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) was celebrated in Beijing on March 29, 2008.

Chen Zhu, Minister of the Ministry of Health, attends the celebration meeting

The Cancer Hospital was founded in 1958, and in 1963, it launched a cancer institute. It was relocated to its current location at Longtanhu, in downtown Beijing, in 1983 and was renamed the Cancer Institute and Hospital (CIH). Today, the CIH is a national center for advanced cancer research and treatment, and one of the collaborative centers with the World Health Organization (WHO) for cancer research in China. It is one of the top hospitals for cancer prevention and treatment in Asia, in terms of scale.

Equipped with the most advanced medical facilities, such as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Instrument (MRI), the center accommodates over 1,000 hospitalized patients, with an annual inpatient load of about 20,000 and outpatient load of about 390,000. The diagnosis and curative results of tumors such as lung cancer, hepatoma, esophageal cancer and lymphoma are of state level, even up to international level. In the past five decades, the institute has received over 160 science and technology awards, among which 59 percent were given at the national- and ministry-level; several papers written by researchers from the CIH were published in top international academic journals, such as Cancer Research. With over 100 world-class researchers and a 15 million yuan ($1.8 million) annual budget, the CIH plays a leading role in advancing cancer research and treatment in China.

Furthermore, the CIH also makes its presence in various non-profit activities. Every September, since 1999, it has co-organized the Terry Fox Run in Beijing, in tandem with the Canadian Embassy, to commemorate Terry Fox (a Canadian bone cancer patient who ran 4,800 km across Canada in 143 days in 1980), and raise money for cancer research in China. More than 200,000 people have taken part into this activity, and over 3 million yuan ($ 375,000) has been donated to areas in western China. Each year, experienced doctors and nurses are sent to Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to provide training for local medical professionals and free medical examinations to the local people.

Chen Zhu, Minister of the Ministry of Health; Chen Xiaohong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health; Liu Depei, President of CAMS; Professor Peter Boyle from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of WHO; and representatives from the cancer institute and hospitals, medical schools and research institutions home and abroad, attended the celebration meeting.

In addition, seminars on cancer prevention and treatment will follow the meeting, in the three-day celebratory event.