"Survival rate, drug resistance, tumor markers" to fight cancer, but if you don't understand these words, you will suffer.

What do you need to fight cancer? Money, energy, confidence, all right! But many people ignore the study of tumor knowledge.

In the process of anti-cancer, patients and their families often hear many technical terms. They appear frequently, but they may not be fully understood by everyone. Today, we will learn six common high-frequency words, hoping to help every anti-cancer soldier fight cancer better.

key word

Efficacy evaluation, survival rate, cure rate, tumor markers, drug resistance, clinical trials.

1. Efficacy evaluation

Patients and their families are very concerned about the curative effect of tumor treatment. How do doctors evaluate the therapeutic effect in clinic?

For solid tumors, CT, MRI and other imaging methods are the first choice for curative effect evaluation. By looking at the test results, doctors will generally give the following four evaluation results:

CR: complete remission? Reaction), indicating that all tumor lesions disappeared and the level of tumor markers normalized.

PR: partial remission (partial? Reaction), indicating that the target lesion is reduced by 30%; One or more non-target lesions persist, and/or tumor markers remain above normal levels.

SD: Stable condition? Disease), the target lesion shrinks by less than 30% or increases by less than 20%; One or more non-target lesions persist, and/or tumor markers remain above normal levels.

PD: progress? Disease), which means that the target lesions have increased by 20% or more, and the non-target lesions have worsened.

The objective remission rate (ORR) in general examination results refers to the proportion of subjects who have reached CR and PR.

2. Survival rate

X-year survival rate refers to the proportion of patients who survive for X years after tumor treatment, not the proportion who can only live for X years.

The common survival rates are 1 year, 3-year and 5-year. The 5-year survival rate is often used to indicate the therapeutic effect of a certain type of cancer.

For example, breast cancer is a kind of cancer with good therapeutic effect at present. The 5-year survival rate of breast cancer in China is 83.2%, which means that 83.2 out of 100 breast cancer patients in China can survive for more than 5 years after receiving treatment.

solidify

It is difficult to completely cure the tumor, that is, it is difficult to ensure that there are no cancer cells in the witness.

Therefore, for cancer patients, achieving clinical cure is the goal.

If the patient meets the following two conditions at the same time, it is generally considered that the clinical cure has been achieved:

Why five years? Recurrence and metastasis are most feared after tumor treatment, and 80% occur within 5 years after treatment. If it takes 5 years, the probability of recurrence is relatively small, which is why the 5-year survival rate is used to indicate the effect of tumor treatment.

But it doesn't mean that it won't recur after 5 years. Even if you survive for 5 years, you should check regularly according to your doctor's advice and don't take it lightly!

4. Tumor markers

Tumor markers (TM) are substances synthesized and released by tumor cells themselves or produced by the body's reaction to tumor cells in the process of tumor occurrence and proliferation, indicating the existence and growth of tumors. Ordinary cells generally do not secrete such substances.

There are many kinds of tumor markers. For tumors, a variety of tumor markers can usually be selected for detection.

Regarding tumor markers, patients and their families need to be clear about these three points:

To judge the condition of tumor, we can't just look at tumor markers.

When judging the tumor condition, tumor markers are only auxiliary indicators, and cannot be used as a diagnostic basis alone. If you want to make a diagnosis, the pathological result is the "gold standard"; To judge whether there is recurrence/metastasis, it is usually combined with imaging examination.

Tumor markers are elevated,

Does not mean that the tumor must recur/metastasize.

Dynamic monitoring of tumor markers is of great significance. The level of tumor markers once increased, so it is impossible to judge that the tumor treatment is ineffective or recurrence/metastasis occurs. A normal level of tumor markers at a certain time does not necessarily mean that "everything is fine", but it needs a comprehensive judgment of a number of examination results of regular follow-up.

In addition to tumors,

Other factors may also lead to abnormal tumor markers.

Tumor markers are not exclusive to tumors, and infection, inflammation and strenuous exercise may also add some tumor markers.

5. Drug resistance

Drug resistance refers to the decrease or even disappearance of the sensitivity of pathogens to drugs after repeated contact with drugs, which leads to the decrease or ineffectiveness of drugs. Microorganisms, parasites and cancer cells all produce drug resistance.

Drug resistance is a common phenomenon in the medical field and an important direction of medical research. Some time ago, the news that Tu Youyou's team overcame artemisinin resistance gave people great encouragement.

In terms of tumor, chemotherapy, targeting, immunity and other drugs may all produce drug resistance, but their drug resistance patterns are different. The mechanism of drug resistance is very complicated, and an important reason is that tumor cells constantly have new gene mutations.

At present, the most important method to solve the drug resistance of anticancer drugs is dressing change. Patients need to go to the hospital regularly to ask a doctor to review the treatment effect, and the drug resistance should be resolved in time.

In addition, studies have shown that the combination of drugs can prolong the resistance time of targeted drugs, such as targeted therapy combined with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and so on. However, this needs to be carried out under the professional guidance of a doctor and cannot be used by patients themselves.

6. Clinical trials

A lot of anti-cancer information we see every day is the result of clinical trials or animal experiments. Many patients and their families will think that since they have been tested and demonstrated, the test results must be applicable to clinical treatment, right?

No!

Whether a new drug/technology can be used in clinic must go through a series of complicated audits and experiments to prove that the drug or technology is superior to the existing scheme, and animal experiments and clinical trials are important links. Generally speaking, if a drug or technology is approved for marketing, it means that patients can use the drug or technology within the indications.

The following is a brief introduction to animal experiments and clinical trials:

animal testing

Animal experiments are often used to explore the etiology, mechanism and treatment of diseases, but there is a big gap between the experimental results and clinical application. The reason is:

(1) Animal experiments are carried out under certain conditions, and the conclusion is only applicable to this specific condition, which is difficult to realize in clinic.

clinical trial

Clinical trials are usually divided into three stages: phase I, phase II and phase III.