Individualized treatment of lung cancer: a customized plan for each patient

With the rapid development of medical technology, the field of lung cancer treatment is ushering in a revolutionary change - personalized treatment. In short, it is patient-centered and tailors a unique treatment plan based on the specific situation of each lung cancer patient. The emergence of this model has completely changed the traditional "one-size-fits-all" treatment method, allowing every lung cancer patient to obtain the most suitable treatment plan for themselves, thereby greatly improving the treatment effect and survival rate. So, what is personalized treatment for lung cancer? How is it achieved? How much do you know? Let's discuss this topic together!

What is personalized treatment for lung cancer?

Individualized treatment, as the name implies, is to develop the most suitable treatment plan for patients based on their specific conditions. For lung cancer patients, this means that doctors will consider factors such as the patient's age, gender, tumor type, stage, gene mutation, etc., and tailor a set of the most suitable treatment plans for the patient.

In the field of lung cancer, the core of individualized treatment is gene testing and targeted therapy. By testing the patient's genetic information, doctors can understand the patient's gene mutations and predict the patient's sensitivity and resistance to different drugs. Targeted therapy targets the patient's specific gene mutations and selects corresponding targeted drugs to accurately attack tumor cells and reduce damage to normal cells.

What are the basic treatment principles of individualized treatment?

1. Patient-centered: Personalized treatment always puts the patient's needs and interests first, ensuring that the treatment plan is both safe and effective.

2. Precision treatment: Through genetic testing and other means, the patient's gene mutation can be accurately identified to provide a basis for precision treatment.

3. Comprehensive consideration: Comprehensively consider the patient's physical condition, tumor type, stage and other factors to develop a personalized treatment plan.

4. Continuous monitoring: During the treatment process, regularly monitor changes in the patient's condition and adjust the treatment plan in a timely manner to ensure the treatment effect.

Rare targets and personalized treatment for lung cancer

In recent years, with the continuous efforts of researchers, more and more rare targets have been discovered in the field of lung cancer, such as ALK, ROS1, MET, BRAF, etc. The discovery of these rare targets has further promoted the development of personalized treatment for lung cancer. By accurately detecting these biomarkers, doctors can choose the treatment plan or strategy that best suits the patient, thereby realizing a patient-centered personalized treatment model.

Taking the BRAF target as an example, it is like a specific "switch" or "button" that controls certain important functions within the cell. When this "switch" or "button" works normally, the cell can maintain normal growth, division, apoptosis and other processes; however, when BRAF mutates or becomes abnormal, this "switch" may become overactive or out of control, causing excessive cell growth or cancer. Although its mutation rate in lung cancer is not high, due to the large base of lung cancer population in my country, the overall number of patients cannot be ignored. For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer with BRAF mutations, traditional treatment options, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, are often ineffective. Therefore, giving these patients more precise and individualized targeted treatments is an urgent need to improve current clinical benefits.

Clinical benefits of new drugs targeting rare lung cancer targets

With the continuous progress of drug research and development, new drugs targeting rare targets in lung cancer continue to emerge. These new drugs are usually more effective than traditional treatment options such as immunotherapy or chemotherapy. Taking advanced non-small cell lung cancer with BRAF V600 mutation as an example, the dual-target combination of BRAF inhibitors and MEK inhibitors has added new treatment options for patients.

How to achieve clinical benefits of personalized treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer?

To achieve clinical benefits of personalized treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, we need to start from multiple aspects. First, the development of new drugs is the key. Only by continuously developing effective drugs targeting rare targets in lung cancer can we provide patients with more and better treatment options.

Secondly, these drugs need to undergo rigorous clinical research to confirm their efficacy and safety, and obtain approval from relevant departments for marketing.

In addition, policy support is also crucial. National medical insurance policies should cover these new drugs to reduce the financial burden on patients.

Finally, accurate pathology testing is the basis for personalized treatment. We need to establish a complete pathology testing ecosystem, improve the detection rate and efficiency, and ensure that every patient can receive accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Discovery of more rare targets and precise individualized treatment trends in lung cancer

With the deepening of scientific research, more and more rare targets for lung cancer have been discovered and made into drugs for clinical use. The overall number of patients with these rare targets cannot be ignored. They will greatly change the treatment pattern of lung cancer, thereby helping to promote the realization of chronic disease of lung cancer. Nowadays, it has become a reality for patients to choose appropriate individualized treatment plans through genetic testing. This gives us new hope for the treatment of lung cancer: in the future, with the launch of more new drugs and the continuous advancement of technology, lung cancer may gradually become a controllable chronic disease, and even have the hope of being cured.

Looking into the future of personalized treatment for lung cancer

The following suggestions and prospects are made for the realization and exploration of personalized treatment for lung cancer: First, we all need to establish a better detection concept, that is, the premise of personalized treatment is accurate detection. Doctors should accurately find the patient group with Biomarker expression and formulate the most appropriate treatment plan for the patient. At the same time, patients themselves should actively understand and accept genetic testing, and discover and choose personalized treatment plans suitable for themselves as soon as possible. Secondly, we need to establish a more complete clinical testing pathway and pathological testing ecosystem to improve detection efficiency and accuracy. In addition, with the advancement of basic science and the improvement of detection methods, we will discover more forms of lung cancer gene mutations in the future, and we will have more knowledge about lung cancer itself. The ultimate goal is to enable every patient to find the treatment plan that suits them best and truly achieve accurate individualized treatment.

Personalized treatment of lung cancer is a major advancement in the medical field, which brings more treatment options and hope to patients. Although there are still some challenges and limitations, with the continuous advancement of technology and in-depth research, I believe that personalized treatment of lung cancer will become more mature and perfect in the future. Let us all work together to create a better future for lung cancer patients!

Expert introduction

Li Xingya

Chief Physician Professor Doctoral Supervisor

Director of the Second Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University

Director of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO)

Vice Chairman of the Precision Medicine Branch of the Chinese Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics

Vice Chairman of the Tumor Chemotherapy Committee of the Chinese Medical Education Society

Standing Committee Member of Oncology Branch of China Association for International Exchange of Medical Care

Standing Committee Member of Tumor Immunotherapy Professional Committee of China Medical Education Association

Chairman of the Lung Cancer Branch of Henan Respiratory and Critical Care Society

Vice Chairman of the Chemotherapy Committee of Henan Anti-Cancer Association

Approval code: TML0021575-54484, valid until 2025-04-18, expired information will be deemed invalid