Immunotherapy, the new hope for those who fight lung cancer

I do not know someone who has not been touched by cancer drama: a brother, an aunt, a dear friend. And that someone - who may be me or you can be - has certainly felt powerless in the face of a disease that, unfortunately, needs great solutions and a still low survival rate. As a matter of fact, 75% of the total number of lung cancer patients discover metastatic disease, that is, advanced, when the chances of doing something are infinite. Therefore, the need for innovation and new oncological treatments for patients with advanced stage cancer is a pressing one. New discoveries in the fight against cancer With the desire to offer hope to patients suffering from this terrible illness, specialists have sought out all sorts of solutions. Throughout history, cancer treatments consisted of: surgery (at certain stages and certain cancers), radiation therapy, irradiation, hormone therapy (breast cancer when influenced by the hormone profile), chemotherapy, targeted therapies (those therapies .

Returning to chemotherapy, it is considered by oncologists Catalin Costovici, primary oncologist. Due to the lack of specificity, side effects are often significant, not often putting the life and quality of life of the patient at risk. And the results of chemotherapy are not identical in patients with the same disease and the same stage of illness, It has the potential for a real change in cancer treatment, improving long-term survival rate and patient quality of life. The immune system, the key to the cancer war In particular, immunotherapy targets the immune system, not having a connection with the tumor itself, with cancer cells. The growing understanding of how cancer evolves and invades the immune system lies at the heart of immune-oncology, the most important step in oncology in recent years.

Immuno-oncology starts from the premise that the immune system is the most powerful and effective mechanism by which the body recognizes and combats diseases. Unlike traditional therapies that directly target the tumor, immuno-oncological drugs are designed to harness the natural capabilities of the patient's immune system. These involve combating cancer by precisely targeting the same pathways of the immune system used by tumor cells to umvent its recognition and destruction. The process of defending the body against foreign agents, such as infections or cancer, is called the immune response. In case of oncological disease, uncontrolled tumor cells can block the immune, physiological response of the body, a blockage that is accentuated as tumor develops and particularly correlates to the metastasis process.

Immunological oncology therapies activate the immune system, allowing the recognition and destruction of cancer cells, Catalin Costovici, primary oncologist. More specifically, every minute our body produces cancer cells that are recognized by the body's immune system, as bacteria are recognized, for example, and are eliminated. The onset of cancer is linked to a blockade of the immune system, which no longer recognizes these cancer cells. Here comes the immunotherapy that manages to act on certain links of the immune system and awakens the immune response of the body in order to fight cancer. Immunotherapy in lung cancer Pulmonary cancer is one of the major problems of society, primarily because, on the background of smoking, the number of people who develop or develop lung cancer in the coming years is very high, it is the leading cause of male mortality .

Worldwide, 1. 8 million new cases of lung, tracheal and bronchial cancer are reported annually, and 1. 6 million deaths are reported (according to the latest Global Burden of Cancer report (published May 28, 2015). In Romania, 67 are discovered. 000 new cases of cancer every year and 41.

400 deaths, about the total population of a city. Unfortunately, lung cancer is ranked first in the top 10 cancers as the number of cases reported annually to the population (8990 cases), followed by the colorectal (8. 660 cases), breast (7. 895 cases), prostate (5. 890 cases), cervical cancer (3.

430 cases), oral (3. 320 cases), gastric cancer (3. 290 cases), pancreatic (2. 564 cases), bladder (2. 000 cases).

And the whole lung is the leading cause of death according to a top 10 cancers, after mortality: lung (8. 790 cases), colorectal (5. 190 cases), gastric (3. 150 cases), breast (2. 880 cases), pancreatic (2.

664 cases), liver (2. 076 cases), prostate cancer (1. 875 cases), cervical (1. 700 cases), cerebral (1. 330 cases).

Immunotherapy is currently only one month, settled in Romania only for metastatic malignant melanoma. In the case of lung cancer, immunotherapy is awaiting approval from the Health Insurance House. Because although immunological drugs are approved for various therapeutic indications, in the present case many cancers, when it comes to reimbursement and inclusion in national oncology programs for a specific therapeutic indication, pass through the same bureaucratic process of each . Immunotherapy, approved (attention, not settled!) In the first line of lung cancer treatment is, nevertheless, a historic moment, it is the greatest progress we have been talking about over the past 30 years because it is the first time . Performance is 2 times higher for this treatment than first-line chemotherapy.

Results of Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer, presented at the ASCO Congress Dr. Catalin Costovici, a primary oncologist, told us that 28% of patients with squamous cell lung cancer who had been treated with immune-oncological agents survived 18 months, double the survival rate of conventional therapy - 13% of patients, according to studies . And for non-squamous cell lung cancer, 39% is the 18-month survival rate of patients who received immuno-oncology therapy versus 23% survival rate at 18 months for chemotherapy patients. Access of Romanian patients to immunotherapy Studies, the obvious results, the opinions of the specialists converge to a single conclusion: immunotherapy is a salvage solution for patients with advanced lung cancer. It prolongs their life expectancy and improves their quality of life.

The fact taken into account by the authorities of some foreign countries that settle this treatment. In countries where this is not happening (including our country), patients - with the effectiveness of this therapy - make enormous sacrifices (sell their homes, make loans) - the cost to a patient reaching about 7. 000 euros per month, and in some cases treatment for metastatic melanoma can last for several years. According to the National Health Insurance House, there are currently 4. .