CUHK
News Centre

The opening ceremony of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Brain Tumour Centre and inauguration ceremony of Combined Neuro-Oncology Clinic were held today (26 June). Dr. C K Li, Cluster Co-ordinator (Clinical Services, New Territories East), Hospital Authority; Professor T F FOK, JP, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK; Professor H K Ng, Chairman, Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology; Professor Paul B S Lai, Chairman, Department of Surgery; Professor W S Poon, Director, CUHK Brain Tumour Centre and Dr Danny T M Chan, Associate Director, CUHK Brain Tumour Centre officiated at the ceremony.

The CUHK Brain Tumour Centre adopts a combined-team approach to provide complete all-round care and therapies for brain tumour patients (and brain cancer patients in particular). The new institute houses the Combined Neuro-Oncology Clinic, which is the first such facility in the region.

There is an average of 150 newly diagnosed patients of malignant brain tumour (brain cancer) in Hong Kong every year. In the past, their median survival was disappointingly short, at 9-12 months and the overall prognosis was not satisfactory. Today, with the advancement in both clinical and laboratory research, there is a new ray of hope for this group of patients.

A multidisciplinary and combined approach of surgical resection, followed with concomitant chemo-radiotherapy, has been shown to prolong the survival of brain cancer patients for the first time in medical history. Brain tumour patients only need to visit one single clinic for combined and concomitant chemo-radiotherapies, where they can meet the surgeon, radiation oncologist and medical oncologist together. The arrangement avoids multiple visits and hastens the treatment. Confusions that may arise in the dispersal of information from multiple sources would also be minimized. Intensive concomitant chemo-radiotherapy scheduling would therefore be facilitated.

The CUHK Brain Tumour Centre is also devoted to enhance researches in the area among the Chinese community. A study conducted by the CUHK Brain Tumour Centre has reviewed the survival outcome of 35 adult local Chinese brain cancer patients treated in Prince of Wales Hospital with either radiotherapy alone or concomitant chemo-radiotherapy from 2005 to 2007. The results of the study indicated that the combined approach of concomitant chemo-radiotherapy may improve the survival of local Chinese brain cancer patients. The study also explored the association of a molecular marker (MGMT) with prognosis and treatment response. It showed that brain cancer patients with methylation of this molecular marker (MGMT) in the cancer cells live longer than those without methylation.