Lung Cancer - Catching up with hope
When it comes to lung cancer, bronchial carcinoma, as with other lung diseases, the devil is in the details. First of all: Lung cancer arises at the cellular level, in the lungs themselves. Metastases from other types of cancer, such as breast cancer, are not bronchial carcinoma. Doctors also differentiate between small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and various non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). From prevention, development, diagnosis to treatment and therapy: medicine and research face a variety of challenges when it comes to lung cancer!
But a lot has already been achieved in the last few decades:
Through insights from genetics, immunological approaches and technological innovations, treatment options and prognosis for lung cancer patients have significantly improved. Radiation or combination therapies are more precise and effective. Early detection of lung cancer has also improved, because the later bronchial carcinoma is discovered, the worse the prognosis.
The next most urgent research projects or questions that our scientists are pursuing are:
- Why do people who have never smoked get lung cancer, what are the triggers, and which genetic characteristics increase the risk of lung cancer?
- Keyword precision medicine: How can the different types of cancer be characterized more precisely in molecular biology and biochemistry so that the treatment can be tailored more specifically to the patient with the respective type of cancer.
- Keyword gender medicine: What gender-specific differences are there in terms of types of cancer, but also in response to therapies and side effects?
- How can we interrupt signaling pathways or block receptors that the cancer needs to grow, or prevent the formation of blood vessels that supply the tumor with nutrients and oxygen. Such substances are being intensively studied and some are already in clinical tests.
Another research approach is “vaccination against cancer,” a method that helps the immune system destroy tumor cells. There are great hopes here for the “gene scissors” CRISPR/Cas. It can specifically change the genetic material of a cell outside the body of the sick person; similar to the “Find and Replace” function in a text. The modified cells can then be returned to the patient so that the immune system recognizes and destroys the cancer cells.