Every year, 50,000 people in Germany develop lung cancer, one of the most dangerous types of cancer, which is usually only discovered when it has already metastasized. Every year, 35,000 people die from cancer. Lung cancer is also caused by mutations of healthy cells against which the body’s own immune system can no longer fight.
However, scientists are taking advantage of this cancer treatment approach by applying personalized precision medicine that cracks one’s genetics by decoding the characteristics of the lung tumor. This then results in the patient not being cured, but the progression of the disease can be slowed, and survival extended.
Researchers at Frankfurt University Hospital led by study leader Gernot Rohde, MD, who specializes in pneumology/allergology, have discovered that driver mutations are responsible for the growth of cancer cells. Therefore, his attention is mainly focused on endogenous influences by so-called growth factors, which slow down cell division and growth.
There are receptors on the cell surface of lung cancer cells that initiate a multistep signaling chain with the participation of enzymes, which needs to be interrupted. With the help of two active substances, some of which are still in clinical development, the aim is to slow down tumor growth. In 25 percent of all lung cancer patients, so-called tyrosine kinases are responsible for this, and efforts are being made to inhibit them.
In the other 37 percent of patients, active substances are used as inhibitors that switch off another enzyme, known as K-RAS, in order to block the signaling pathway. If antibody-based agents are then coupled with chemotherapeutic agents, the chances of success are further increased and the patient’s own immune system can once again recognize the cancer cells as the enemy.
Source: www.heilpraxisnet.de