The development of lung cancer drugs has experienced three revolutions, from chemotherapy and targeted therapy to immunotherapy now. The "Administrative Measures for the Implementation or Use of Medical Devices for Specific Medical Technology Examination" just published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare was promulgated on September 6, which clearly stipulates that after being approved and registered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, cancer patients who failed to respond to 1 to phase 3 and patients with phase 4 solid cancer can be treated with autologous immune cells, which can provide a new choice for the treatment of lung cancer patients.
Chemotherapy will affect the normal operation of the human body, and targeted therapy may produce drug resistance.
Dr. Chen from the Chest Department of the Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University said that the concept and technology of tumor treatment are changing with each passing day. The first time was chemotherapy after 1940. The mechanism of chemotherapy drugs is to kill rapidly dividing cells, so it is effective for cancer, but it also affects the operation of normal human body. Therefore, as long as the dose of chemotherapy drugs is large enough, it can cause death. .
The second revolution of lung cancer drugs is "targeted therapy". It is always a challenge for scientists to find drugs that can kill lung cancer without affecting normal cells. In 2003, FDA approved the first targeted drug for lung cancer; Nowadays, as long as patients with non-small cell lung cancer (especially lung adenocarcinoma) have EGFR, ALK, ROS- 1, Met or BRAF mutations, there are corresponding targeted drugs. But cancer cells will continue to evolve, and drug resistance will appear over time.
Immunotherapy is in full swing, introducing immune cells to chase lung cancer.
For patients with lung cancer who are ineffective in standard treatment, autoimmune cells can be extracted, cultured in vitro with drugs, transformed into cells with strong ability to hunt lung cancer, and then infused into the body. Theoretically speaking, it should have great therapeutic potential as an "immune checkpoint inhibitor"
How to wake up sleeping immune cells? Dr. Chen said that about 20% of lung cancer patients, immune cells have identified bad molecules in the body, but cancer cells started the immune brake before they were destroyed. As soon as the brake is started, the immune cells will think that the cancer cells are their own, so they will put out the loaded gunpowder and continue to sleep. "Immune checkpoint inhibitor" is an anti-cancer drug, which aims to relax the immune brake.
What should we do for lung cancer patients whose lung cancer cells are well hidden from the beginning and cannot be recognized by immune cells? Current research evidence shows that chemotherapy or radiotherapy can be added to immunotherapy. Because chemotherapy or radiotherapy will kill some cancer cells, ruptured cancer cells will increase antigen presentation, thus enhancing the immune recognition of cancer cells.
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