In the last course, we learned the inside story of tumors, and we also learned that the immune system plays an irreplaceable role in the battle against tumors. If we want to win this battle, we must let our immune system. Strong enough.
Many cancer patients know that in the current clinical treatment of cancer, the most commonly used conventional treatments are mainly surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and having a healthy immune system can provide greater help for these conventional treatments.
For example, during surgery, infection is the most common complication during surgery. Before antibiotics were used in surgery to fight infection, most patients often died of severe postoperative infections even if the surgery was successful, and most patients who completed the final recovery depended on their own immune system to carry the postoperative infection. . Nowadays, the application of antibiotics is very popular. During surgical operations, antibiotics are generally used prophylactically according to the length of the operation and the size of the surgical incision. Although this effectively controls the risk of infection after surgery, after antibiotics exert their antibacterial or bactericidal effects, the immune system is ultimately required to complete the task of cleaning bacteria.
In addition to surgical treatment, the most commonly used other method of tumor treatment is radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and having a healthy immune system can create conditions for the smooth implementation of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Because everyone knows that whether it is radiotherapy or chemotherapy, the side effects are relatively large, which will bring greater pain and burden to the patient's body, and even some patients have to temporarily interrupt the treatment because the body cannot bear a complete course of treatment. Continue after the body recovers for a while.
This is because whether it is radiotherapy or chemotherapy, it is inevitable that the immune system will be damaged during treatment. For example, during chemotherapy, many chemotherapeutic drugs have greater killing of white blood cells, resulting in a decrease in the number of white blood cells, which are an important cell of the immune system. Therefore, during the treatment of some patients, the doctor will give the patient a drug commonly known as "Baizheng", which we usually call "Baizheng", mainly refers to recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (ie G-CSF) , Is the "growth and ripening agent" of white blood cells. In addition, many patients will also use α-interferon, thymosin, interleukin and other drugs to improve immune function during treatment and recovery. The use of these drugs in combination with chemotherapy can have a synergistic effect and help patients recover better.
This shows that in the treatment of tumors, a strong immune system is an irreplaceable important force.
At present, in the field of tumor treatment, many high-end and emerging cutting-edge technologies still start with immunity. Some friends may have come into contact with or heard of cancer immunotherapy. One of the methods is to extract immune cells from the patient, genetically modify and amplify them in vitro, and then inject them back into the patient. This immunotherapy is called adoptive cells. therapy.
In addition, CAR-T cell therapy is chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy, which is a new type of precision targeted therapy for tumor treatment. In recent years, it has achieved good results in clinical tumor treatment through optimization and improvement. This is a very promising new tumor immunotherapy method that can be precise, fast, efficient, and has the potential to cure cancer.
In addition to this method, current immunotherapy mainly includes: targeting antibodies, oncolytic viruses, cancer vaccines, and immunomodulators. Moreover, these immunotherapies have been approved to treat multiple malignant tumors, both at home and abroad. Such as the HPV vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine that have been used in cancer vaccines, and the immunostimulants interleukin and dextran in immunomodulators.
Immunotherapy has become a new star in the field of tumor treatment, and has attracted more and more attention from scientists from all over the world.
Former US President Carter was found to have cancer cells when he underwent surgery to remove a liver mass, which later spread to the brain and there were 4 melanomas in the brain. He did not even have much hope when he went to the cancer center for treatment. But what he didn't expect was that after taking a brand new anticancer drug and receiving radiotherapy for 4 months, the doctor did an examination and found that the brain cancer cells had completely disappeared.
The new anti-cancer drug (KEYTRUDA, K drug for short) taken by President Carter is a PD-1 inhibitor, which can boost immunity and wake up T lymphocytes in the body to kill cancer cells.
It is understood that many oncology specialists have said that immunotherapy has been widely trusted in recent years. At present, there are at least 5 to 6 similar drugs under development, and K drug is an early drug that can be applied to the market.
After tumor patients have completed various treatments in the hospital, they will enter an important stage, that is, the rehabilitation stage outside the hospital. In addition to regular visits to the hospital for necessary re-examinations, patients in this period have to rely more on themselves. What is the most critical issue at this time?
That's right, the biggest task of cancer patients during the recovery period is to prevent recurrence and metastasis. CCTV's "Decrypting Cancer" documentary clearly pointed out that less than 10% of cancer deaths are caused by primary tumors, and about 90% of deaths are caused by metastatic tumors. This shows that as long as the recurrence and metastasis of tumors are controlled, the three, five, and ten years of tumor recovery will be just around the corner.
So how to control recurrence and metastasis? Let us first look at why the tumor recurs and metastasizes.
In the current cancer treatment, the status of surgery in tumor treatment is still unshakable. However, it is a pity that no matter how good the surgical plan, how high the level of surgery, tumor cells cannot be completely removed during surgery, let alone tumor stem cells, which will cause a lot of tumor cells and tumors to remain in the patient's body. Stem cells, even small lesions remain, and these residual cells and small lesions are the key factors leading to tumor recurrence and metastasis.
Therefore, how to control these residual cells or small lesions will be a key problem in controlling tumor metastasis and recurrence, and this is also closely related to the patient's own immune ability, because the immune system always plays an irreplaceable role in cleaning cancer cells. .
So what should patients do to improve their immunity during the recovery period?
One aspect is to maintain a good living condition. In daily life, it is necessary to cultivate good living habits, moderate exercise, maintain an optimistic and positive attitude, and at the same time develop good eating habits, listen to more professional doctors’ dietary guidance, and eat reasonably.
On the other hand, it is also an aspect that deserves more attention, that is, letting the residual cancer cells in our body be cleaned and controlled. In the previous sharing session, we mentioned that a small amount of cancer cells are within the control of the immune system. Therefore, during the recovery period, the immune system should be kept in the best active state at all times, through appropriate supplementation of immune boosters such as beta glucan Wait, let the immune system, the national defense force, be in a state of preparation and combat at all times, so that immune soldiers can see, manage, and kill more cancer cells.
Of course, cancer patients also need to go to the hospital regularly to check related indicators. In the first sharing session, we mentioned that Japan attaches great importance to immunity, so the survival rate of malignant tumors in Japanese is still very high.
Therefore, cancer patients should pay attention to immunity and the level of autoimmune activity. As the saying goes, iron strikes need to be hard, especially for patients who are in the recovery period, they should keep their immune system active at any time, so as to add strength to their recovery and fundamentally build their own disease resistance.
In the next sharing session, I will give you a brief introduction to the immune booster β-glucan.
References:
https://kuaibao.qq.com/s/20200521A0DP9X00?refer=spider
《免疫学原理》周光炎主编 科学出版社 P351-356
https://tv.cctv.com/2013/12/03/VIDE1386079745731321.shtml?spm=C55924871139.PKgX4CXWWE68.0.0
