Related information on targeted therapy for lung cancer

Targeted therapy is a drug therapy that acts on new sites compared to traditional chemotherapy. In fact, both chemotherapy and targeted therapy are drug therapy. Chemotherapy acts on various sites within cells, such as the different phases of mitosis in each cell. However, in the field of chemotherapy, the original cytotoxic drugs have reached a bottleneck, and it is difficult to move forward. Many new drugs have not been introduced.

In fact, tumor growth involves not only mitosis within cells but also other processes, such as angiogenesis around cells and the impact of environmental changes around cells on tumors. Malignant tumors require initiation and signal transduction to cause unlimited proliferation. If this signal transduction is blocked, cell proliferation can be stopped. Drugs developed for these targets are currently the hottest targeted drugs.

At present, the three drugs that are most familiar to people for targeted treatment of lung cancer are Iressa, Tarceva, and Conmana. In fact, the mechanisms of action of these three drugs are similar. The basic mechanisms are the same. They have brought great changes to the treatment survival of patients with EGFR (epidermal growth factor) mutations (patients with this target). Their median survival has increased from about one year to two and a half to three years. This type of drug has a very obvious effect on extending the survival of patients with this type of gene mutation, which is a revolutionary change.

Some lung cancer patients, such as those with positive EGFR mutations, are sensitive to TKI drugs, such as Iressa, Tarceva, and Conmena. The improvement in survival is very obvious, which can basically double or triple the patient's survival time. However, for patients with negative gene mutations, our treatment progress to date is still limited, but it is also improving, but the progress is relatively limited. The survival of such patients is one to one and a half years.