Lung cancer is the number one “cancer killer” in Hong Kong, and among patients with advanced lung cancer, as high as 40% of the chances are that the cancer will “upgrade the brain”, and the risk of death is greatly increased. In the past, there were not many treatment options for these cases, but in recent years, a new generation of targeted drugs has been developed, which can effectively prolong the progression-free survival period of lung cancer, help prevent brain metastasis of cancer cells and slow down the deterioration of brain metastasis.
Ms. Liu, who is only 37 years old, lives a healthy life and does not smoke or drink. However, she was diagnosed with ALK lung cancer a few years ago and suddenly felt a bolt from the blue. She later took the first generation of ALK inhibitors, but experienced side effects such as nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and slightly blurred vision. She also received radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Fortunately, the cancer has not recurred so far.
Dr. Liu Jiansheng, a specialist in clinical oncology, said that the prognosis of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer is poor, and the occurrence of “brain metastases” is the main cause of death. However, side effects such as hair loss, fatigue, drowsiness, memory loss and cognitive dysfunction may occur; patients can also receive drug treatment, but the blood-brain barrier in the brain will prevent most drugs from penetrating from the blood to the brain, increasing the risk of drug treatment in the brain. cancer difficulty.”
NSCLC patients with ALK gene mutations can currently receive ALK inhibitors as targeted therapy. The inhibitors have evolved to the third generation and will be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2021 for the treatment of metastatic NSCLC. first-line drug for patients with lung cancer. The results of the study showed that the third-generation ALK inhibitors effectively broke through the blood-brain barrier, penetrated the drug into cancer cells in the brain, and induced a significant and long-lasting central nervous system response. However, Dr. Liu reiterated that the relevant drugs may have side effects such as high cholesterol, high blood fat, edema, and numbness of hands and feet.
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