Source: People's Daily News
"Every patient has to work as if it were curable. Don't give up, there will always be surprises in life. Li Jin, a well-known expert in gastrointestinal oncology in China and director of the Department of Oncology of the Oriental Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, said in an interview.
From the era of chemotherapy, we have entered the era of targeted treatment, and ushered in the era of immunotherapy. In the past two decades, the development of tumor treatment has advanced by leaps and bounds. According to Li Jin, in 2000, he went to Yale University School of Medicine in the United States to do postdoctoral research, where he found the direction of his career. "There are many clinical trials in Western countries, and in the past fifty or sixty years, many anti-tumor drugs have been successfully developed by them." Li Jin decided to make the clinical trial of new drugs his life's work. After returning to China in 2003, Li Jin was invited to serve as the director of the Department of Internal Medicine of Fudan Cancer Hospital, and in 2011, he built a Phase I clinical platform. In 2016, Li Jin was transferred to Shanghai Oriental Hospital to build the Phase I Clinical Center of Oriental Hospital.
Li Jin said that the human trial before the marketing of new drugs is divided into three phases: Phase I is the first time that the drug is used in the human body, mainly pharmacology and human safety evaluation tests, which provide a basis for formulating the drug dosing plan and safe dose; Phase II is to obtain information on the effectiveness of drug treatment; Phase III is the confirmation stage of the therapeutic effect, and it is also a key stage to provide a basis for the approval of drug registration applications.
"We mainly do the most risky Phase I clinical trials, and there are many uncertainties. Therefore, most are single-centered, and the first dose is often only done for one patient, and the analysis and summary can determine how to use the second patient. Li Jin explained that 60-70% of patients participating in phase I clinical trials are those who have failed standard treatment and have no follow-up treatment methods, and participating in new drug clinical trials is the only hope. In order to ensure the safety of phase I clinical patients, doctors need to invest a lot of energy.
In the face of the emergence of new anti-tumor drugs in China, there are countless clinical trials of immunotherapy, including PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 inhibitors. Li Jin believes that China now has hundreds of PD-1, PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies, although they have their own patents, international patents, but more are similar drugs that have been listed abroad. "What we can do is to promote the market of effective drugs as soon as possible and improve the accessibility of new drugs for Chinese oncology patients."
The "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline proposes that by 2030, the overall five-year survival rate of cancer will increase by 15%. For stomach cancer tumors, Li Jin said with confidence: "Through the efforts of all aspects, I believe that in the next 10 years, the 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer will increase by 15%, which is not a very luxurious." On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the early diagnosis and early treatment of gastric cancer, and at the same time, it is necessary to control precipitating factors, such as Helicobacter pylori. On the other hand, stomach cancer is a tumor with strong heterogeneity, which has been subdivided into many types, and targeted drugs are being developed, and the treatment will be more and more precise, which is very important for improving the survival rate of metastatic gastric cancer, and may even achieve cure. ”
Science has never been achieved overnight, and the change of science to life is also a process of quantitative change causing qualitative change. "I can let patients live one more month this year, and next year I can live two months, half a year, and even if I try harder, I can live a lot of one year." To the extent affordable, one more day makes sense. I hope that through my efforts, I can change the lives of some tumor patients and make them change from incurable to clinically curable. Li Jin said.
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