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In Mexico, nearly 80% of lung cancers are diagnosed too late; This procedure could help save more lives. Photo: Pixabay.
MEXICO
The combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy, a new treatment in Mexico against lung cancer, increases the life expectancy of patients with this diseasesaid Omar Macedo Pérez, medical oncologist assigned to the Tórax Clinic of the National Cancer Institute (INCan).
When treating patients with lung cancer Under this clinical protocol, "a lasting benefit can be obtained, which means that the disease is controlled for years".
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In an interview with Notimex, he pointed out that the number of Life expectancy of 50% in patients.
He warned that lung cancer was a global health problem due not only to smoking, but also to chronic exposure to wood smoke and other pollutants.. "Around the world he is linked to a 85 percent to smokeHowever, in Mexico, the numbers are different, we have a 55% related to smoking and a 45% respond to other causes"
I regret that in Mexico, nearly 80% of lung cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stagewhich means that the patient is not a candidate for surgical treatment.
We need to provide treatment that controls the disease, improves symptoms and makes patients live longer, "he said.
Currently, he said, we have three strategies to fight lung cancer: the traditional, which chemotherapy; white therapies, where they are used drugs or other substances to identify and fight specific types of cancer cells causing less damage to normal cells, and the newest combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The treatment changes according to the test applied to the patient called molecular profilewhich consists in detecting very specific mutations such as EGFR, ALK; when they are detected, a white therapy is applied – type of treatment, in which drugs or other substances are used to identify and fight specific types of cancer cells, and which cause less damage to normal cells, Which is a therapy that blocks these mutations.
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If the patient does not have these mutations, which present one out of four, the next parameter we analyze is called TDL1; he directs us to see what treatment we will apply if we give him immunotherapy or if we are going to give him a combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy.
To understand this last treatment, it is important to emphasize that there is more than one month, James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine, for his discovery of cancer treatment by regulating the immune system.
His work has been key to demonstrating the real potential of Immunotherapy as a cancer treatment, and a starting point for the development of new clinical trials in patients.
What they have discovered is precisely how they defend themselves from immune cells. Thanks to this discovery, drugs called immunotherapies have been developed that specifically attack these defense mechanisms against cancer. The immune system goes into action to attack tumor cells. This is exactly what immunotherapy currently is, "said Macedo Pérez.
In Mexico, immunotherapy is approved for patients with lung cancer. In the INCan they are assisted 400 new lung cases each yearand the corresponding clinical protocols are applied to determine the type of treatment.
Risk factors, said the specialist, in addition to smoking, are chronic exposure to wood smoke, environmental pollution and chronic lung infections. It is therefore recommended to pass obligatorily before a persistent cough of a duration of four weeks or more. with a pulmonologist to study the lungs.
In addition, if the patient has a persistent cough, he has chest pain, cough with blood sputum, these are symptoms that make you think you have an illness and need assessment by a respirologist or internist.
* JVR
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