Red Net Moment, March 18th (correspondent Cai Qian) “I never dreamed that cancer would one day be under control! I am full of the future now. Confidence, I believe that I can overcome the disease!” On the morning of March 17, Ms. Wang reviewed the chest CT and other examinations at the Third Hospital of Changsha City, and found that the primary lesions in the lungs and the metastases in the head were significantly reduced. This surprised her with lung cancer and multiple metastases.
Ms. Wang, 56, developed chest tightness and cough 2 months ago, and also had pain and discomfort in the shoulder and back. At first, she thought it was due to a cold and fatigue, so she took antibiotics and cough medicine by herself, and didn’t care too much; but after a month, the cough and shoulder and back pain became more and more serious, and bloodshots appeared in the sputum.
At the urging of her sons and daughters, Ms. Wang came to the outpatient department of respiratory and critical care medicine of Changsha Third Hospital. Zhu Yingqun, director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, who was admitted to the hospital, asked her about her medical history and performed a lung CT scan. She found that there was a mass in her upper right lung; further examination results such as biopsy and magnetic resonance under bronchoscopy showed that Ms. On the lung adenocarcinoma, the tumor has metastasized to the ribs, thoracic spine, head.
For Ms. Wang, this news is tragic. During her stay in the fifth ward of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, she was depressed and washed her face in tears all day. While actively comforting and enlightening, the medical and nursing team of the department further examined Ms. Wang and formulated the most suitable treatment plan.
The hard work pays off. After genetic testing, the medical team found that Ms. Wang’s EGFR gene mutation was positive, so she suggested that she choose the drug osimertinib for molecular targeted therapy.
Ms. Wang and her family were surprised and surprised that after only one month of treatment, her symptoms such as cough, shoulder and back pain were significantly relieved. The metastases on the head shrank, and the scene at the beginning of the article appeared.
“The reason why the patient has such a good effect is that the ‘key’ of targeted drugs corresponds to the ‘lock’ of her tumor gene target.” Zhu Yingqun explained that molecular targeted therapy is The representative of precision treatment of lung cancer. Drugs are developed based on the driver gene targets of lung cancer, just like a key opens a lock, so it can precisely and quickly achieve the purpose of controlling the growth, division and metastasis of tumor cells, and the side effects are relatively small.
However, not all lung cancer patients are suitable for targeted drug therapy. Lung cancer includes small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. The lung adenocarcinoma that Ms. Wang suffered from is a type of non-small cell lung cancer. Targeted therapy is mainly aimed at patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and there are gene mutations and targets. At present, the more mature targets are epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene sensitive mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusions. and ROS1 oncogene fusions.
Furthermore, targeted therapy does not mean once and for all. All targeted drugs have an unavoidable problem – drug resistance, and the time of drug resistance varies from patient to patient. If the previous symptoms such as cough, hemoptysis, and shortness of breath reappear after using targeted therapy, it is necessary to combine imaging examinations and tumor marker examinations for further judgment.
In short, with the advancement of medical technology and scientific development, there are more and more treatment options for lung cancer patients, and the survival rate is greatly improved.