Chinanews.com, Beijing, November 6 (Reporter Li Yanan) "In China, about 80% of gastric cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, with few treatment options available and limited efficacy." Director of the Department of Oncology, Tongji University Oriental Hospital Li Jin recently reminded the public at the "Gastrointestinal Tract·Sweet and Sour Media Open Day" activity that once any abnormalities such as stomach discomfort or weight loss are found, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible; high-risk groups should undergo regular gastroscopy for early detection and treatment .
According to the latest cancer statistics, gastric cancer has become the second largest type of cancer in China after lung cancer.
China has the largest gastric cancer patient population in the world, and the incidence rate is much higher than the world average.
In 2018, China had 456,000 new gastric cancer cases and 390,000 deaths, accounting for 44% and 50% of the global total respectively.
Experts pointed out that the current epidemiological status of gastric cancer in China can be summed up in three words: large base, late staging, and poor survival.
Prevention and treatment require both hands. On the one hand, prevention and early screening should be strengthened, and on the other hand, advanced innovative treatment is imperative.
Li Jin said that China's gastric cancer cure rate and insufficient control are particularly difficult problems that need to be tackled in the future.
In China, about 80% of gastric cancer patients are already at an advanced stage when they are diagnosed. There are few treatment options available and the efficacy is limited.
This factor directly contributes to the worrying overall survival rate of gastric cancer patients in China: According to data from the National Cancer Center in 2018, the five-year survival rate for gastric cancer patients in China is only 36%.
The main reason for the high incidence of gastric cancer in China is not unrelated to eating habits.
As the most common pathogenic factor, the prevention of Helicobacter pylori puts forward requirements for the split meal system.
In addition, gastric cancer was more common in the middle-aged and elderly in the past, and the incidence increased with age. However, according to clinical data in recent years, problems such as irregular meals, love for "heavy taste", smoking, and drinking have caused gastric cancer. The trend of getting younger.
Li Jin reminded him that he is the one who goes to the doctor for gastric cancer before he is sick.
Once abnormal conditions such as stomach discomfort or weight loss are found, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible; high-risk groups should also undergo regular gastroscopy for early detection and diagnosis and treatment.
If gastritis is detected, especially atrophic gastritis, it must be treated in time, because atrophic gastritis is a precancerous lesion. If there is no treatment or attention to diet, the incidence of gastric cancer will be very high in the future.
The treatment of advanced gastric cancer is the number one problem in all solid tumors.
Shen Lin, deputy dean of Peking University Cancer Hospital, said frankly: “In the past, it was said that'chemotherapy and chemotherapy can be done in one step'. In fact, it represents a kind of helplessness in the face of most patients with advanced gastric cancer. Chemotherapy can be used; and chemotherapy drugs have limited efficacy. Even if they develop new chemotherapy regimens, they usually only bring survival benefits for less than a year."
Facing the huge unmet needs of the vast majority of HER2-negative patients, researchers have conducted many explorations in the current hot immunotherapy field, from the treatment stage after the failure of standard chemotherapy to the initial treatment stage.
According to reports, under the requirements of ethical review, the development of new drugs needs to start clinical trials from people who cannot undergo conventional treatment. Therefore, third-line and later-line treatment is the first step in exploration, and then can develop to second-line and first-line treatment. Research.
After obtaining the efficacy and safety certification for gastric cancer immunotherapy in the third-line study, the second-line failed, and then the researchers went on to carry out a series of first-line studies.
Shen Lin said that in March this year, China's first gastric cancer immunotherapy drug Odivo (Navulimab) was approved for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer patients who had previously received two or more therapies; in September, a large international clinical study Good news comes from CheckMate-649. Nivolumab combined with chemotherapy has been successfully used in the first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Compared with the current standard treatment of chemotherapy, it has significantly improved the survival benefit of patients. This is also the first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer in the past decade. The first major breakthrough in the field.
Li Jin believes that the continuous emergence of innovative drugs and new therapies has enabled my country to move from the past simple chemotherapy to the era of targeted therapy, and from the era of targeted therapy to the era of immunotherapy. The effect of patient treatment continues to improve, and the treatment brings The toxic side effects are getting smaller and smaller.
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