Introduction to the Cancer Research Center Cancer is still a huge challenge we face. Cancer ranks second among the global population and the leading cause of death in advanced countries.
According to the Geneva (GENEVA) World Cancer Report (the most comprehensive survey in the world today), approximately 10.9 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year, and 6.7 million patients die.
In China, according to the National Ministry of Health Information Center, the incidence of cancer in China has risen to 127 cases per 100,000 people in the 1990s. In recent years, there have been 1.6 to 1.7 million new cancer patients every year, with the total estimated at 4.5 million.
Left and right, the main cancer types are gastric cancer (21.76%), liver cancer (17.83%), lung cancer (15.19%), esophageal cancer (15.02%), colorectal cancer (including anal tumors, 4.54%), leukemia (3.53%),
Cervical cancer (1.64%), nasopharyngeal cancer (1.53%) and breast cancer (1.49%).
Due to the aging of the population in developing and developed countries, the increasing prevalence of smoking and unhealthy lifestyles, the incidence of cancer is still rising. It is expected that the global cancer incidence will increase by 50% by 2020, and the number of patients will reach 1,500
Ten thousand.
Cancer poses a great threat to human health. People have been looking for effective treatments to conquer cancer. Anti-cancer research is a very challenging and significant field in today's life sciences.
The occurrence of tumors is an extremely complex process. In the past, some people divided it into two stages: initiation and promotion. Carcinogens and carcinogens act on these two stages respectively, thus forming tumors.
From genetic analysis, many genes mutate during the carcinogenesis process and are unable to perform their duties, leading to cancer.
With the advent of the post-genomic era, people's understanding of genes and their functions is gradually deepening. The differences in intracellular signal transduction pathways between tumor cells and normal cells are being recognized. The signal transduction and cell cycle in malignant tumor cells
Various basic processes such as the regulation of cancer, induction of apoptosis, angiogenesis, and the interaction between cells and extracellular matrix are being gradually elucidated, and the pathogenesis of cancer at the molecular level is becoming increasingly clear.
With the elucidation of signal transduction pathways such as tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis, the cancer treatment that used to be based on a unified approach in the past has produced many side effects, including physical discomfort, and some even threaten life safety.
Replaced by targeted drug products that have been quietly launched recently, targeted treatment methods have the main goal of killing cancer cells.
Targeted anti-cancer drugs directly target molecular targets, just like targeting, and will be able to effectively overcome the unavoidable shortcomings of cytotoxic anti-tumor drugs currently commonly used in clinical practice, such as poor selectivity, strong side effects, and easy development of drug resistance.
Currently, computer virtual screening, combinatorial chemistry, and high-throughput screening accelerate the research process of new targeted therapy drugs.
Anticancer drugs researched on molecular targets currently mainly include monoclonal antibodies (monoclonal antibodies) targeting targets (antigens or receptors) on the surface of tumor cells, cell signaling molecule inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors, and telomerase-targeting
Inhibitors and reversal agents for tumor resistance, etc.
Discovering new anti-cancer drugs with high efficiency, low toxicity and strong specificity that selectively act on specific targets has become an important direction in the research and development of anti-tumor drugs today.
The emergence of targeted drugs has fully demonstrated the huge potential of using molecules as targets to treat tumors, marking the arrival of a new era of cancer treatment.
This type of drug changes the way traditional chemotherapy drugs attack all rapidly dividing cells. They target gene mutations or abnormal gene expression of tumor cells and have little impact on normal cells.
However, the limitations of chemotherapy often lead to the emergence of resistant cells. The generation of cancer cells with inherent resistance is caused by the genetic instability of these cells.
This problem will arise in all treatments targeting cancer cells, so expanding the number of cellular pathways that can be targeted has the potential to reduce drug resistance and adverse effects and increase the number of multi-drug treatment options available.
Treating cancer in this way has created several changes in the market, and this innovative therapy will turn the cancer care market around over the next decade.
According to a recent study by Business Communication, the global cancer medicine market was US$14.87 billion in 2001 and will reach US$26.7 billion in 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 12.5%.
From 2000 to 2005, it is estimated that there are 134 new drugs for the treatment of cancer (including inventions such as innovative drugs, new dosage forms, or new ways to use old drugs). These new drugs have significantly increased global cancer pharmaceutical sales revenue by 75%.
The total market value of cancer treatment drugs in 2000 was US$13.2 billion, of which existing drugs accounted for 90%. The market for this segment will reach US$18.2 billion in 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 6.6%.
Cancer treatment has undergone great changes since the late 1990s due to the invention of innovative treatments.
Such innovative treatments include monoclonal antibody therapies, which in a few years will be combined with older medical treatments such as cytotoxic agents and hormonal therapies.