Aunt Wang, who has suffered from breast cancer for 3 years, went to the hospital for follow-up, and her cheerful laughter was completely different from the wandering and fearful emotions when she was just diagnosed 3 years ago, and now she can follow up and examine in the hospital, and she can also make appointments for psychological clinics and nutrition clinics. She even said that "cancer is not a terminal disease now, you see me, after treatment has been very good, now to the hospital for follow-up is like high blood pressure, high blood sugar and other chronic diseases." "Tumor survival, chronic disease management, diamond mutations" and other unimaginable situations have gradually appeared in our tumor patients.
Will tumors bid farewell to "terminal illness" becoming a chronic disease?
1) Some tumors are no longer "terminally ill"
Taking breast cancer as an example, according to the statistics of Fudan University Cancer Hospital, only surgery and no follow-up radiotherapy and chemotherapy are required, the total 5-year survival rate of breast cancer in situ is as high as 97.9%, which means cure in the medical sense; and the average 5-year survival rate of breast cancer ii and III patients is 75% and 61% respectively, and the diagnosis and treatment level of China is comparable to that of developed countries in Europe and the United States.
And with the development of new tumor treatment methods such as targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and proton heavy ions, patients can get more treatments to prolong life, making cancer not "incurable". Moreover, many cancer patients can also participate in clinical trials to obtain cutting-edge treatment solutions, while alleviating economic pressure and reducing the burden on families caused by cancer. In addition, after the negotiation of national medical insurance drugs, the cost of many high anti-tumor drugs has been reduced again, which has greatly reduced the medical burden of tumor patients and allowed more patients to no longer be unable to afford drugs! It is also expected that more new anti-tumor drugs will enter medical insurance in the future, so that more people can use life-saving drugs, so as to truly achieve high-quality survival with tumors!
2) Some tumors can be prevented and "eliminated"
In addition to the increasing number of tumor treatment methods, we are also paying more and more attention to cancer screening. In 2018, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, put forward the goal of eliminating cervical cancer globally, including China, 194 countries committed to eliminating cervical cancer, through cervical cancer vaccine and screening can significantly reduce the prevalence of cervical cancer, according to scientists estimates, through the universalization of cervical cancer vaccination and screening, China can avoid about 7.5 million cervical cancer patients in this century, but also save about 2.5 million women's lives.
epilogue
In the prevention and treatment of cancer, we must pay full attention to the primary prevention and secondary prevention of tumors. Among them, the former refers to the prevention of etiology, the purpose is to identify and eliminate risk factors for cancer, and to prevent the occurrence of diseases before they occur. The latter refers to the early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment of malignant tumors, the purpose of which is to improve the cure rate, reduce mortality and disability rates. For patients with advanced cancer, prolonging tumor-bearing survival and improving quality of life under the escort of modern medicine is not a myth. The innovation of medical technology and the innovation of drugs have brought hope to many tumor patients, many tumors are no longer "terminal diseases", and even we can detect and prevent early detection and prevention through early screening and vaccination. It is believed that in the near future, with the continuous progress of science and technology, tumor patients will have a "long life" with tumors, and tumors will also bid farewell to terminal illnesses and become a chronic disease.
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