Cancer chemotherapy side effects are not terrible, alternative "magic medicine" to help!

The reason why cancer is terrible is not only that it is a "terminal illness", but also that its treatment process cannot be accepted by everyone

Whether it is surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or even targeted therapy and immunotherapy, which have brought breakthrough curative effects in recent years, they often bring a lot of side effects to cancer patients

As the most basic treatment method for cancer treatment at present, there is no doubt that its side effects will "impress" all patients: hair loss, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, etc.

But in fact, with our continuous exploration of cancer chemotherapy drugs and side effects treatment solutions, today's chemotherapy has already been "reborn": for different side effects of chemotherapy, we have a complete set of countermeasures: For example, ice caps solve the problem of hair loss , antiemetic drugs to solve the problem of nausea and vomiting, and other corresponding supportive treatment

Just in February of this year, the US FDA approved a "magic drug" for cancer treatment: the CDK4/6 inhibitor trilaciclib

Coincidentally, the US DT company recently announced the clinical results of its drug DB-020

The birth of these blockbuster drugs that reduce the side effects of chemotherapy is no less important than the launch of any therapeutic drug

How do trilaciclib and DB-020 help patients reduce the side effects of chemotherapy? We can start with chemotherapy itself

1.

We all know that bone marrow is an important hematopoietic organ in the body, which can produce red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets in the blood

Chemotherapy is a common problem that causes myelosuppression

In the face of many chemotherapy drugs with serious side effects of myelosuppression (such as paclitaxel, irinotecan and other drugs), many patients will have moderate or even severe side effects of myelosuppression, which often affect the patient's established treatment course, resulting in curative effect.

The decrease in blood levels caused by bone marrow suppression brings the most intuitive feeling to patients, that is, "the body is getting weaker and weaker" and "the immunity is gradually weakening".

Myelosuppression can be said to be one of the "stubborn elements" that cause the most headaches for patients and doctors among all the side effects of chemotherapy

2.

In February 2021, the U.

As mentioned above, as a groundbreaking drug, trilaciclib is the first drug that can help patients reduce the side effects of chemotherapy myelosuppression
.

As a CDK4/6 inhibitor, how does trilaciclib achieve this miraculous effect? This is inseparable from its mechanism of action
.

In fact, CDK4/6 was originally a very important anticancer target
.
By inhibiting these two enzymes, the progression of tumor cells from G1 phase to S phase can be effectively blocked, thereby controlling cell division in G1 phase
.
To put it simply, it is to control cancer cells in the "infancy" stage, so that they do not have the opportunity to grow and do evil
.

Coincidentally, since human bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells are similar to tumor cells in the characteristics of rapid division, CDK4/6 inhibitors can also act on our bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells
.
Prophylactic use of trilaciclib before chemotherapy can temporarily block bone marrow cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, significantly reducing the killing of bone marrow cells by chemotherapy drugs, thereby protecting bone marrow cells and immune system function
.
In other words, the hematopoietic stem cells are temporarily controlled in the "juvenile stage", but they are protected from chemotherapy
.

How protective is trilaciclib? In 3 independent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II clinical studies, 123 patients with extensive-stage SCLC received triaciclib prior to chemotherapy, and 119 patients with SCLC received chemotherapy alone
.

Of these, myelosuppressive side effects were significantly milder in patients treated with Triaciclib
.
In clinical practice, 77.
1% of patients not treated with Triaciclib experienced grade 3-4 myelosuppression adverse reactions, while only 44.
3% of patients treated with Triaciclib experienced the same myelosuppression
.
The incidence of adverse effects of moderate to severe myelosuppression dropped by nearly one-third
.

In addition to the significantly reduced side effects of myelosuppression, another data also deserves our attention: 31% of patients not treated with triaciclib had to reduce their chemotherapy dose at least once because of moderate to severe side effects of myelosuppression, while in triaciclib-treated patients Of the patients, only 9.
2% required a reduction in the chemotherapy dose
.
The use of Triaciclib also greatly improved the effectiveness of the treatment
.

3.
Chemotherapy drugs bring "ototoxicity" DB-020 to protect patients' hearing from damage

In addition to the side effects of myelosuppression caused by chemotherapy, hearing loss is also an important side effect that plagues patients
.
To make matters worse, myelosuppression is reversible, but hearing damage is permanent and far-reaching
.
And this problem, to a large extent, may be completely solved by the new drug DB-020
.
Clinical data showed that DB-020 protected up to 87% of the subjects' ears from ototoxicity
.
In clinical patients, DB-020 reduced cisplatin-induced speech hearing loss by 80%
.
A side note that treatment with DB-020 may reduce the risk of patients requiring hearing aids following cisplatin therapy
.
Therapeutic drugs are undoubtedly the focus of the anti-cancer process, but the control of side effects is also essential to escort patients during the treatment process
.
It is hoped that Triaciclib and DB-020 will become routine protective drugs for patients during chemotherapy in the future, helping patients avoid the devastation of chemotherapy side effects
.

Author|Dongdong Medical Department

Source|Dongdong Cancer Circle