The Sino-French 2012 Conference in Thoracic Oncology: an international academic platform for in-depth exchange on comprehensive research.

The Sino-French 2012 Conference in Thoracic Oncology, held November 17-18, 2012, was hosted by the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center and organized in collaboration with two prestigious French hospitals: Institute Gustave Roussy and Marie Lannelongue Hospital. The conference was established by leading experts from China and France to serve as an international academic platform for sharing novel findings in basic research and valuable clinical practice experiences. Hot topics including innovation in surgical techniques, diagnosis and staging of early-stage lung cancer, minimally invasive surgery,multidisciplinary treatment of lung cancer, and progress in radiotherapy for lung cancer were explored. Highlights of the conference presentations are summarized in this report.