The fifth Thoracic Oncology Symposium took place recently in Marrakech, with the participation of oncologists, radiotherapists, thoracic surgeons, and pulmonologists, both national and foreign.
This scientific meeting, organised by the Study and Research Group in Thoracic Oncology (GERCAT), focused on lung cancer and more particularly the real impact of the electronic cigarette and new developments in radiotherapy in the treatment of bronchial cancer. Four practical workshops led by eminent experts and focusing on anatomopathology, oncology, radiology, and lung transplantation furnished the programme of this event which also gave rise to a debate on the role of pulmonologists in multidisciplinary consultation meetings with a view to making diagnostic or therapeutic decisions. The observation that emerged from the debates is that lung cancer, linked in 90% of cases to cigarettes and which remains the leading cause of mortality, is no longer the preserve of men insofar as it today has increasingly harmful effects on the female population. The capital role of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancers was also highlighted. It is a revolution in the treatment of lung cancer, it being understood that all results confirm its superiority over standard chemotherapy, according to the speakers.
The question of the controversy created around the electronic cigarette also occupied a central place in the debates. In this spirit, the collective work "Non-small cell broncho-pulmonary cancer: knowledge and practice", coordinated by the president of the Moroccan Society of Oncology, Prof. Ali Tahiri, was presented.
In the said work, Prof. Tahiri returns to the deleterious mechanisms of both active and passive smoking on the body and stresses the danger of the electronic cigarette by basing himself on many studies conducted by prestigious institutions in the United States, Europe, and Japan, in addition to the World Health Organisation. This book, which is the fruit of collective work led by 33 eminent oncologists, 25 Moroccans and 8 French, takes stock of current knowledge and perspectives in oncology by notably bringing innovations in the treatment of lung cancer, Prof. Tahiri confided to the newspaper "Le Matin". Published by a prestigious French publishing house, the work was printed in 1,500 copies which will be distributed free of charge both in the Maghreb and in France, he added, noting that the electronic cigarette is harmful and could be more dangerous than tobacco. Lung cancers are the most widespread in the world and their aetiology is closely linked to smoking. In the Maghreb, diagnosis is often made at an advanced stage and less than a third of patients can no longer benefit from an excision surgery which offers chances of survival in the case where lung cancer is diagnosed early and treated according to the rules of the art.
