In the previous sharing, we left a question, how is the immune system of tumor patients damaged step by step?
In fact, in the face of this problem, I think that every one of our cancer patients knows well that the reason why we have become weakened and sick is because of the tumor itself and the treatment of the tumor.
Tumor is the gathering place of countless cancer cells. It is the demon that descends on the side of normal tissues and organs of our human body. Its existence will directly cause triple damage to our immune system, namely oppression, squeeze and overwhelm.
Once a certain tissue or organ of our human body develops a tumor, it will inevitably press the living space of surrounding tissues and organs at all times, making the body's nutrient intake and metabolism unable to proceed normally, thereby damaging our healthy immune system.
At the same time, tumor, a greedy demon, competes with normal human tissues and organs for nutrition all the time. As the imperial army of the human body, the immune system is the primary line of defense for our health, resisting the intrusion of internal mutant garbage and foreign pathogenic microorganisms, but under the influence of tumors, it not only needs to expend a lot of energy to fight against cancer cells and other pathogens, but also Nutritional supplies are squeezed by tumor cells. Under the double tribulation, this army will be struggling.
And when the tumor is strong enough to overwhelm the body's immune system, then the cancer will also break out. If you do not actively intervene in treatment, you may be killed by the tumor and its complications or other diseases.
But having said that, tumor treatment is easier said than done. Not only is it difficult to eliminate tumor cells, even the current conventional tumor treatment methods, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy will make tumor patients' already fragile immune systems suffer a round of destruction.
First, let's talk about the destruction of the immune system caused by surgery.
The first step of the operation is anesthesia. Some anesthetics will temporarily inhibit the function of granulocytes, inhibit the activity of NK cells, and weaken the immune response. However, the anesthetics generally do not have a significant impact on the patient's immune system due to the short duration of action. But some anesthetics also have specific effects on immunity.
The second step is resection. Surgery is the most effective way to remove the primary tumor and metastatic lymph nodes. Surgery will inevitably cause stress stimulation in the human body. What is stress stimulation? It is like cutting vegetables and cutting the nerves of the hand. The system will react to avoid it as soon as possible. The stress stimulation during the operation can cause neurological and endocrine disorders and immune dysfunction. The overall performance is that the number of immune cells such as T, B lymphocytes and NK cells decreases, and the proliferation activity decreases. And the non-specific immune response capacity is weakened, the production of immune regulatory factors is reduced, and the overall immune level is reduced in a short-term. The immunosuppression caused by surgery occurs within a few hours after surgery and lasts for several days, and the specific duration is proportional to the extent of the surgical trauma.
It is precisely because of the impact of surgery on the immune system that the operation period has become one of the key factors in determining the prognosis of the tumor after the primary tumor. Surgery, anesthesia, analgesia, and certain drugs will affect immune function and tumor metastasis. Many cancer patients cannot recover for a long time after surgery, and they always feel that they are short of breath, which is actually caused by the damage to the immune system caused by the surgery.
Next, let's talk about radiotherapy.
Radiation therapy is one of the main treatment methods for tumors, and it has shown good effects in early stage nasopharyngeal cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, esophagus, breast cancer, and digestive system cancer.
However, while the radiation used in clinic kills tumor cells, it will inevitably damage the organs that control the body's immunity and reduce the body's immune function.
Some patients need to be irradiated in certain areas of the lymphatic system and high-dose irradiation to certain immune organs (such as the thymus) adjacent to the tumor during treatment, and some need to be irradiated with whole body, half body or whole lymphatic system, so that the patient The white blood cells decrease and the level of immunoglobulin decreases, which affects immune function.
In addition, there is a typical example of radiation "suppressing bone marrow." Bone marrow has an important function of producing blood cells and can also produce "white blood cells", which play a major role in immunity. Especially in adults, the bone marrow of the spine plays a central role in hematopoiesis. However, radiation can damage the bone marrow and interfere with the production of blood cells. As a result, the production of white blood cells is also reduced, thereby causing a decline in immune function.
Finally, let's talk about chemotherapy.
For many cancer patients, chemotherapy may be the only way in the treatment process.
Chemotherapy drugs target rapid growth and regeneration of cells, and rapid growth and regeneration are the common characteristics of cancer cells. As cell growth and division stop, tumors will shrink and die, and most chemotherapy drugs will travel throughout the body through blood vessels. When the drug circulates in the blood, the drug destroys the metastatic cancer cells.
Unfortunately, chemotherapy drugs cannot distinguish between fast-growing normal cells and cancer cells. Therefore, chemotherapy drugs can also damage some fast-growing normal cells, such as those in the bone marrow, digestive system and hair follicles. Killing these normal cells leads to Side effects, such as weakened immune system, nausea, and hair loss.
Some of these cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs can even directly or indirectly kill immune effector cells, leading to poor immune system function or immune incompetence. B cells, T cells, and NK cells decreased significantly within two weeks after chemotherapy. In particular, B cells only reached 5.4% of the pre-chemotherapy level, and the proportion of newly born B cells in memory cells and initial cells is also very different.
A study of breast cancer survivors found that chemotherapy has long-lasting damage to most patients, making their immune systems extremely vulnerable and vulnerable to some common virus infections.
According to statistics, currently 30% of breast cancer patients are treated for cancer through chemotherapy. A recent study published in "Breast Cancer Research" shows that the lethality of a chemotherapy on lymphocytes of breast cancer patients will continue until 9 months after the chemotherapy, and the lymphocyte levels are much lower than normal.
So, after all this, do you think that the damage to the immune system caused by tumor and tumor treatment is over? Unfortunately, no.
There is a very painful data telling us that about 80% of the patients in our country are already in the middle and late stages when malignant tumors are discovered, and the main reason for the suffering, disability and death of patients is tumor complications.
In terms of causes, complications are divided into two categories. One is related to treatment, and the other is caused by tumor invasion or metastasis. During treatment: pain and infection after surgery; chemotherapy: causing white blood cell, platelet decline, nausea and vomiting; radiotherapy: radiation damage; ... all of the above are treatment-related complications. Complications such as bone metastasis, pleural and ascites, cancerous fever, and cancerous pain are directly related to tumor progression and are called tumor-related complications.
Every cancer patient has tolerated or is suffering from complications more or less. Often due to complications, poor eating, poor sleep, and poor spirits will result in a further decline in the body’s immunity and put cancer cells at risk of taking advantage of their weakness.
From the tumor itself to tumor treatment to tumor complications, through these, we should have understood "how does tumor damage our immune system step by step"? However, what we are deeply powerless about this is that these are unavoidable for cancer patients. Once we have a tumor, we can neither quickly get rid of the tumor, but also have to go for treatment, let alone escape the complications.
The next thing to do is to fight.
We all know that since the spread of the new coronavirus, a common understanding has been formed around the world, that is: immunity is a person's greatest competitiveness. If our immune system is deprived of competitiveness by tumors, then we will naturally lose the competitiveness of survival.
There is no doubt that when the immune system faces these many devastations, we will definitely enter the stage of recovery and strengthening of the immune system to win back the victory in this anti-cancer battle.
In the next issue of sharing, we will talk about how to rebuild the "immunity army" of cancer patients step by step.
References:
1. 白冰，黄宇光.手术和麻醉药物对肿瘤患者围手术期免疫功能的影响[J].中国免疫学杂志，2019, 35(7):881-887.
http://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/periodical/zgmyxzz201907023
2. 放疗常见副反应及处理(一)
https://www.sohu.com/a/16220468_131851
3. 化疗对身体的伤害有多大?
http://www.360doc.com/content/16/0203/09/29329451_532427704.shtml
