Many societies in the present era are characterized by the unprecedented phenomenon of population aging, which imposes substantial new challenges to heath care. Perhaps the foremost of these challenges is an increased burden of tumors; and, indeed, in many societies, cancer has become the main cause of death. Hence, healthcare systems are under substantial pressure to develop novel modalities aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of tumors, both with respect to clinical outcome and patient quality of life. This issue is particularly true for both China and Europe, which are both subjected to substantial population aging, especially when compared with, for instance, the United States of America or India. It follows that Chinese and European health institutions should seek collaboration to develop novel avenues for combating tumors, as both face relatively similar challenges. Accordingly, collaboration was initiated between the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC, one of the top cancer centers in China) and the Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus MC, the largest university hospital in the Netherlands) on all aspects of clinical cancer care and research. This relationship was recently formalized through the signing of a mutual memorandum of understanding between the Erasmus MC and SYSUCC (Fig. 1). The collaboration was initiated by Prof. Chao-Nan (Miles) Qian (Vice President of SYSUCC) and Prof. Dr. Jaap Verweij (Dean of the Erasmus MC Executive Board). Florence Sand (SYSUCC) and Raoul Tan (Erasmus MC) were instrumental in arranging the administrative and logistic details involved. This collaboration promises to provide great oncological research synergy at both institutions and should prove important for the field in general. The unusual potential of the collaboration became evident at the first Sino-Dutch symposium on oncology that was held on October 31, 2015 in Guangzhou, in which eminent scientists from both institutions presented their work (Fig. 2), which in conjunction produced important new insights. This meeting report aims to convey the progress reached during the symposium to a larger audience.