What Are the New Treatments for Lung Cancer?

What Are New Treatments for Lung Cancer? As announced at the World Cancer Congress in recent months, advances in lung cancer treatments are increasing survival rates. Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent, Medical Oncologist and Coordinator of Oncological Sciences at Anadolu Health Center, stated: "In lung cancer treatment where many specialties work together, there are numerous innovations including new immunotherapy agents, adoptive cell therapy, vaccines and smart drugs." Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent made remarks on the occasion of 4 February World Cancer Day: Lung cancer is one of the three most common types of cancer in both women and men. Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent, Medical Oncologist and Coordinator of Oncological Sciences at Anadolu Health Center, noted that lung cancer ranks first among cancer-related deaths in both women and men, stating: "According to experts, the risk factor that is much more powerful than environmental (air pollution, passive smoking) and genetic factors in its development is the use of tobacco and tobacco products. In particular, the increase in smoking among young age groups is also raising the frequency of lung cancer. Another increase has been observed during the pandemic period. Because COVID-19 produces pneumonia-like results in the lungs and has increased tomography scans in hospitals, many lung cancer cases have been diagnosed as a result. On the treatment side, there have been major advances." he said.

Results More Successful Than Before

Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent, noting that with recent technological and medical advances lung cancer has ceased to be as difficult to treat as it once was, stated: "With the new treatment methods it has developed and the innovative medical technologies it uses, the scientific world is better recognizing tumor cells, and we are now in a period where more successful results are being achieved in lung cancer compared to the past."

Cancer Cells in Sleep Mode Cannot Escape Science

Medical Oncologist Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent, noting that cancer cells take advantage of their evolutionary survival mechanisms to escape treatments such as chemotherapy targeting dividing cells, said: "For this reason, they have the abilities of slow division, and even entering sleep mode called the G0 phase where they do not divide at all. Cancer cells in sleep mode are not affected by chemotherapy, and during sleep mode they can develop drug resistance and also undergo mutation. Thus they continue to allow the disease to spread by resuming division. The main mechanism behind tumors that initially respond well to chemotherapy and shrink, only to reappear later, is precisely this" he said. Reminding that, as frequently seen in breast and lung cancers, a cancer cell that has slept for years can suddenly become active, Prof. Dr. Necdet Üskent stated: "Sleeping cancer cells consume their own cell components or their own proteins to survive (self-eating / Autophagy). However, the scientific world has now produced a remedy for this sleep mode of cancer cells as well. Thanks to new drugs that block autophagy, it is now possible to destroy sleeping cancer cells."