Asia's top surgeons gathered here Saturday at the 16th Asian Congress of Surgery and third Chinese Surgical Week to discuss comprehensive therapy for diseases like cancer.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi wrote a letter to congratulate the opening of the meeting, saying that she hoped surgeons from different fields to join hands in research so as to push forwards the science of medicine and benefit the health of human beings.

"Diseases like cancer have claimed lots of lives in the world. It is always the task for doctors to relieve people from pain," she said in the letter.

The meeting attracted more than 3,500 surgical experts across Asia who will attend 220 lectures under 30 subjects, said Zhao Yupei, president of the congress and director of the surgery branch of Chinese Medical Association.

"At the congress, we will break the boundary of subjects and discuss comprehensive therapies for different diseases, especially those new and hard to treat," he said.

Some latest research findings will be introduced at the meeting and manuals on pancreatic cancer therapy, suture methods of abdominal wall and surgical site infection will be released, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2007)