The possibility of cancer cure is small, but the future survival with tumor, turning cancer into a chronic disease like cardiovascular is still possible. Survival with tumor is gradually becoming the preferred state of survival for patients with cancer, which means that cancer ≠ death, and it is not a matter of pursuing tumor-free survival!
1/3 of cancer can be prevented; 1/3 can be cured by early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment; and 1/3 cannot be cured, but can be controlled by appropriate treatment.
According to the 2015 China Cancer Statistics issued by the National Cancer Center, it is expected that China will have 4.3 million new cancer cases in 2015, and more than 2.8 million cancer deaths; due to the strong insidiousness of tumor development, more than 70% of cancers are found in the middle and late stages, losing the best time for surgical treatment.
With the diversification of cancer treatments, in addition to surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc., there are also targeted drug therapies, immunotherapy, etc., so that the survival time of cancer patients has been greatly extended, and the quality of life has been greatly improved, and survival with tumor may be a better choice for them.
What is tumor survival?
Surviving with a tumor, in short, means that the human body and the tumor are "at peace*** with each other".
Specifically, survival with tumor means that after standardized anti-tumor treatment, common tumor-related symptoms (such as bleeding, cancer pain, cough, dysphagia, etc.) disappear, the tumor foci are stable and no longer proliferate, the condition is maintained for a long period of time and tends to get better, and at the same time, the patient has a good physical condition. In other words, the body's immune protection function is greater than the tumor proliferation function, so that the cancer cells are "quiescent" for a long time.
If the tumor can be transformed into a cell that does not grow continuously and does not invade and metastasize, then even if there are cancer cells in the body, it can be realized as in the case of diabetes and hypertension, so that the patient can "live with the tumor" without endangering his or her life.
"It is crucial for cancer patients and their families to accept "survival with tumor", which is a more pragmatic approach for the treatment of middle- and late-stage cancers." China Anti-Cancer Association tumor radiation therapy special committee standing committee, Chongqing Cancer Hospital President Professor Wu Yongzhong said: cancer is essentially a genetic disease, all cancers are derived from genetic mutations, by genetic mutations and epigenetic regulation *** with the role of the human being can not be used to reverse the mutation of the genes, the body of the cancer cell " The current human beings are not able to use drugs to reverse this genetic mutation and "kill" cancer cells in the body. The long-term survival of patients with tumors is a pragmatic choice for patients in the middle and late stages of the disease.
Is it really right to survive without cancer?
Many patients and their families are actively pursuing "cancer-free survival"! For many patients with early-stage tumors, it is very possible to achieve clinical cure through surgical resection. However, for some middle and late-stage patients or patients who are not suitable for surgery or radiotherapy, the pursuit of "cancer-free survival" may not be able to get better tumor treatment effect, and may cause some complications, which may lead to the tragic situation of "life goes on and on, chemotherapy is not the only thing that can stop until the end of life". The tragic situation. "If you hold on to the concept of 'killing the tumor cells to be cured', it often leads to over-treatment.
In fact, it's not the more extensive the surgery, the more radiotherapy done, the more the cancer can be cured. Surgery can only remove solid tumors that are visible to the naked eye, but it can do nothing for the cancer cells in the blood and lymph; the total effective rate of radiotherapy is less than 60%, and the effect is decreasing gradually, less than 10% after three times, but the toxic side effects are bigger than once. Excessive treatment often tends to make the patient's immunity low, so that the cancer cells come back, resulting in the dilemma of "cancer disappears and people go away".
What is the purpose of cancer treatment? Is it to kill the cancer cells by any means necessary, or to save the patient's life so that the patient can live a quality life? The blind pursuit of a cure will only backfire, shortening the survival period of cancer patients and reducing their quality of life.
How long can a patient survive with tumor?
Early-stage patients and late-stage patients are decidedly different, but both are surviving longer as research and treatment intensify.
For patients with early-stage tumors, their prognosis depends mainly on whether appropriate treatments are taken in time. If early tumors are small and have not spread and metastasized, the most effective treatment is surgical resection, and early intestinal and breast cancers can even be eradicated through surgery, while the 5-year survival rate of early lung cancer can reach 60-90% after resection, and radiotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine can be taken for a certain period of time after surgery to prevent recurrence.
For middle and late-stage patients, their prognosis mainly depends on whether the treatment method is appropriate or not and the patient's physical condition. For example, radiotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine are the main treatment methods for middle and late stage lung cancer.
70-80% of patients can reduce their symptoms after radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and the tumor will be suppressed to some extent. Stage IV lung cancer patients who were previously thought to have a survival period of no more than half a year have seen their median survival period gradually extended to 12-15 months or even longer after comprehensive treatment; and globally, ten-year survival rates have begun to be counted for breast cancer that is effectively treated with endocrine therapy.
Cancer chemoprevention and survival with tumor
Survival with tumor is not to give up the treatment or to treat negatively, but to choose the treatment that suits the patient.
In the early stage of carcinogenesis or in the process of cancer cell formation, the use of natural or synthetic chemicals with lower toxicity inhibits precursor compounds from forming true carcinogens and prevents them from contacting and reacting with macromolecules such as DNA, RNA or proteins in the cell until they are completely excreted from the body, or reduces the risk of malignant tumors by reversing, blocking or delaying the various stages of cancer development, thus reducing the It is an important strategy to prevent, inhibit or reverse the occurrence of cancer. This process is called "chemoprevention of cancer".
Chemoprevention of cancer, by virtue of its advantages, such as the inhibition of cell proliferation, vascular proliferation, inflammation, etc., throughout the entire process of cancer development, to prevent the development of cancer, and to enhance the quality of survival with tumor.
A recent study done by researchers at Washington State University confirms that more than 40 plant-derived compounds turn on genes that slow the spread of cancer cells. The spread of cancer cells is the most common fatal disease, and the emergence of dietary, nutrient, and plant-derived chemicals has opened up many avenues of attack against cancer, and we have been searching for a miraculous anticancer "weapon" to fight it," said WSU professor Gary Meadows and others.
The researcher spent a long time in the PubMed medical research database to determine the concept of nutrients and metastasis suppressor genes. In the end, he identified dozens of substances that have an effect on many cancer metastasis suppressor genes. Among them, several phytochemicals exert anti-proliferative, anti-migratory and anti-invasive effects on cancer cells and could be considered adjunctive treatments for cancer.
Curcumin
Curcumin is a chemical component extracted from the rhizomes of some plants in the ginger and asparagus families, of which turmeric contains about 3% to 6%, and it is a rare pigment with diketones in the plant world, a diketone compound. The in vitro anticancer potential of curcumin lies in its ability to reduce oxidative stress by modulating many downstream signaling pathways in cancer cells.
The chemopreventive potential of curcumin has also been documented in animal models of chemically induced cancer. Curcumin has been shown to modulate the Keap / Nrf2 signaling pathway, a major transcriptional regulator in ROS detoxification, thus playing an important role in cancer chemoprevention and therapy.
EGCG
Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated the potential of green tea to reduce the risk of cancer.EGCG, a natural chemotherapeutic agent, is the main active catechin in green tea with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The chemopreventive potential of antioxidant properties of green tea polyphenols has been demonstrated in in vivo as well as in vitro studies.
In addition, EGCG has shown remarkable success in clinical trials for cancer prevention and cancer treatment. A phase II clinical trial conducted in Italy showed that green tea catechin intake significantly delayed the appearance of prostate cancer in patients with high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia.
Radish Thiosulphides
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower are rich in thioglucosides, which can be endogenously converted to isothiocyanate esters such as phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC). Epidemiologic evidence suggests a correlation between the intake of cruciferous vegetables and a reduced risk of breast, bladder, colorectal and other cancers. In addition, scientists have shown that consumption of cauliflower reduces smoking-induced DNA damage in smokers.
Meadows said the research first confirmed that there are many natural compounds that help our bodies slow down or stop the spread of cancer cells, and are important for whether cancer spreads.
Cancer is just a chronic disease, like high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, most cancers are a long-term, gradual process, and there is still a long way to go before they evolve from normal cells to cancer cells. Surviving with tumor does not mean no treatment or negative treatment, it means choosing the right treatment. If clinical cure can be achieved by other treatments such as surgical resection and radiotherapy, cure is of course preferred.
The product AiYiK (Curcumin Complex Tablets), which applies curcumin to cancer chemopreventive drug research, is a combination of multiple natural plant compounds compounded and combined. Curcumin has been shown to be anti-tumor and to reduce toxicity and increase efficacy when used in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs in a number of in vivo and ex vivo experiments, and it has a certain adjuvant therapeutic effect on cancer patients. Due to the safety of curcumin, it can be used for a long time.