After being fired, I became the light of medicine

Chapter 180 Is the cause of lung nodules pneumonia virus?
Zhang Yang's conclusion that the number of lung nodules has increased in recent years sounds somewhat familiar.

Thinking about it carefully, Feng Gang seemed to have said something similar to me when he was diagnosed with lung nodules.

The incidence of lung cancer in China has continued to increase in recent years, with lung adenocarcinoma increasing from 40% to 50%. This is the first time Zhang Yang has heard of this.

but,

He soon realized that he was not completely unfamiliar with the professional term "40% incidence of lung adenocarcinoma"!

In the latest simulation scenario completed in the simulator some time ago, wasn't the task to require you to calculate the incidence rate of lung adenocarcinoma in "East Asians" and "Western Europeans"?
The year of statistics in the simulation scenario was 2018, when the incidence of "lung adenocarcinoma" in East Asians was indeed 40%!

In just a few years, the growth rate increased from 40% to 50%, which is indeed very fast.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang suddenly became interested and asked curiously:
"Then Director Dai, the incidence of 'lung adenocarcinoma' has increased so rapidly in recent years. What do you think is the reason?"

Director Dai thought for a moment and shook his head:

"To be honest, I don't know either, but..."

As he spoke, he paused slightly and looked at Zhang Yang:

"Mr. Zhang, you should be familiar with the four types of lung cancer, right?"

"Each type of lung cancer - adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, large cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer - has a major cause of disease."

"For example, squamous cell carcinoma. The vast majority of patients with squamous cell carcinoma are due to smoking. In other words, most lung cancers caused by smoking are squamous cell carcinoma."

"Although smoking is also a major cause of small cell lung cancer and large cell lung cancer, a large proportion of patients suffer from lung cancer caused by genes, family heredity and long-term exposure to toxic substances."

"Lung adenocarcinoma is basically the same, but in addition to causes such as smoking, the most important cause of lung adenocarcinoma is chronic inflammation of the lungs, commonly known as pneumonia."

"For example, various pneumonia viruses, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc. may cause repeated damage and repair of lung tissue. In the process of continuous cell damage, the genes of lung cells may mutate, leading to lung adenocarcinoma."

"So I was wondering, could the reason why the incidence of lung adenocarcinoma has increased so much be due to persistent pneumonia virus?"

Zhang Yang was slightly startled and said in surprise:
"Pneumonia virus?!"

"Ah."

Director Dai nodded again and continued to explain:

"To be precise, I'm wondering if the pneumonia virus caused a large number of lung nodules to appear. You know, lung nodules are early lung cancer in a sense."

"Some lung nodules are benign, while others are malignant. However, once a large number of lung nodules appear, some of them will inevitably develop into lung cancer."

"So, I think it's possible that the pneumonia virus induced lung nodules, and after a few years of development, some of the lung nodules deteriorated and turned into lung adenocarcinoma!"

"This can explain why the number of patients with lung nodules has increased significantly in the past two years, and the number of patients with lung adenocarcinoma has also increased by 10%!"

After hearing the last part, Zhang Yang looked surprised.

He had been hearing that more and more people had discovered lung nodules in recent years, but had never considered that the pneumonia virus might be the cause.

To be honest, Director Dai’s conclusion is a bit unexpected.

At this time, Director Dai continued:

"Of course, this is just my personal guess, and there is no scientific evidence to support it!"

Zhang Yang nodded, but soon he frowned and suddenly asked:

"Director, if the pneumonia virus is the cause of the increased incidence of 'lung adenocarcinoma', then the incidence of 'lung adenocarcinoma' should have increased in all regions of the world!"

"Do you have data from Europe? For example, from the Nordic race?"

Director Dai's eyes suddenly lit up:
"Zhang Yang, you're right! You reminded me!"

"Although I don't have the data, I can check it now. Wait, I'll check it now."

After saying that, Director Dai quickly took out his mobile phone and began to search for relevant literature.

A few minutes later, he actually found a report on the incidence of lung adenocarcinoma in the Nordic population last year!

42%!

Zhang Yang frowned instantly. He remembered that the incidence rate of the Nordic population in the simulator in 2018 was 40%. Although 42% was indeed 40% higher than 2%,

But it is obvious that the 2% increase in the Nordic population and the 10% increase in the East Asian population are not at the same level at all!
That is to say...

“Isn’t pneumonia virus the cause of the high incidence of lung adenocarcinoma in China in recent years?”

"Or is it that pneumonia virus is not the main reason for the increased incidence of 'lung adenocarcinoma'?"

Director Dai also frowned. If this was the data, then his guess was obviously untenable.

At this time, Zhang Yang continued:

"Director, I think we should not jump to conclusions so quickly. We might as well take a look at the data from other parts of Europe and the United States."

"We will see if the incidence of other 'lung adenocarcinomas' and various lung cancers has increased."

"it is good!"

Director Dai's expression gradually became serious, and he quickly searched for foreign literature through the APP.

However, after a simple search, no accurate data on the incidence of "lung adenocarcinoma" in the United States and other parts of Europe in the past two years was found.

Director Dai suddenly felt a little disappointed and had to put away his phone!
"Mr. Zhang, it's not very convenient to check on the phone, but yours did remind me of a new idea."

"I have to go back and use professional software on my computer to look up more literature and sort out the data before I can analyze the results!"

"it is good!"

Zhang Yang nodded. He also knew that there was no need to rush this matter.

"But Director, please tell me if you come to any new conclusions after you have sorted out the data. I am also very interested."

"OK, all right."

At this point, the two ended their conversation about lung nodules and the rapidly increasing incidence of "lung adenocarcinoma" in lung cancer, but Zhang Yang remembered it in his heart.

After chatting for a while, the night gradually deepened. Zhang Yang personally sent Director Dai back to the hotel and then returned home.

Lying on the bed, he suddenly became very interested in the "biological laboratory" simulation plot of the simulator last time.

To be honest, he had not paid attention to the incidence rate of "lung adenocarcinoma" that he had counted in the plot before. He was just doing the task to pass the simulation plot.

But now it seems that the patient data in the "Biological Laboratory" simulation plot should be real, and even... he thought of a possibility.

Is it possible that the "Adrev" biological laboratory in Norway, its director Dr. Eric, and his laboratory partner Evans mentioned in the simulation plot also exist in the real world?
As he was thinking, Zhang Yang fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.

After a good night's sleep, Zhang Yang came to the company early the next morning.

All the thoughts and doubts that came to his mind before he went to bed last night came to his mind again, and he immediately began to look up for the first time the Norwegian "Adleev" biological laboratory mentioned in the simulation plot.

Soon,
Just as he thought, there was indeed a biological laboratory called "Adrev" far away in Norway, Northern Europe, and the director of the laboratory was indeed Dr. Eric mentioned in the simulator.

He even found information about Evans, the person he communicated with the most in the plot.

“This is amazing!”

Zhang Yang was completely certain that the plot of the simulator was not fabricated, but was probably captured from what happened in the real world in 2018.

Thinking of this, he suddenly became more excited about the subsequent simulation plot.

Since the "Biological Laboratory" plot in the simulator took place in 2018, will the next plot be in 2019?

Also, the simulation plot has completed the "lung adenocarcinoma" data statistics, so what is the next plot?

Are targeted drugs for treating lung adenocarcinoma being developed in biological laboratories?

A strong curiosity surged in Zhang Yang's heart, so he simply turned on his computer and began to seriously learn about the various targeted drugs currently used to treat lung cancer. This was also a way to prepare for the next stage of the plot in advance.

What are targeted drugs?

As we all know, the "nano-nodule developer" that Tsingshan Pharmaceutical is currently conducting clinical trials on can only be regarded as a detection agent that can effectively detect whether lung nodules are benign or malignant, thereby determining whether surgery is needed.

What about those patients who did not find lung nodules at the first time and were not diagnosed with lung cancer until symptoms appeared? They need targeted drugs.

Lung cancer treatment options are generally divided into several stages.

The first stage is carcinoma in situ.

For example, Director Feng Gang performed surgery immediately after discovering a lung nodule. Although the nodule was eventually removed and found to be benign, even if it was a malignant nodule, it would at most be carcinoma in situ.

For carcinoma in situ lesions that are generally smaller than 1CM, only a 2-4cm radius of lung tissue needs to be removed. Lesions that are deeper in the body require slightly more removal.

The patient can be discharged from the hospital just a few days after surgical resection, and does not need subsequent medication or chemotherapy. The maximum follow-up visit is half a year, which can be clinically considered a complete cure.

The second stage is "micro-infiltration", such as Mr. Zhang's solid nodules.

Although it has not spread to other organs and tissues at this time, the tissues near the cancer cells have been affected and invaded.

Compared with carcinoma in situ, surgery requires the removal of larger and more lung tissue. Nodules larger than 2 cm may even require the removal of an entire lung lobe.

The purpose is to prevent cancer cells from spreading to other surrounding lung tissues and recurring if not completely removed.

Of course, for "micro-infiltration" that is generally less than 1 cm, there is no need to take medicine or chemotherapy after surgery. If you are lucky and the tumor is completely removed, it will not recur like carcinoma in situ, achieving clinical cure.

But when it reaches the third stage, "invasive cancer", chemotherapy and targeted drugs must be taken.

Because at this time the cancer cells have almost spread to the entire lung tissue, lymph nodes, and even other organs.
Surgery can no longer solve the problem at this point. We can't remove the entire lung, right?
Therefore,
At this time, chemotherapy is needed to quickly eliminate a large number of cancer cells in the body, inhibit the development of cancer cells, and at the same time shrink the tumor lesions to control the disease.

This process can be understood as a large-scale unified killing without distinguishing between friend and foe. Both normal cells and cancer cells will be quickly eliminated under the action of chemotherapy.

However, chemotherapy has great side effects. After a large number of cancer cells in the body have been eliminated, chemotherapy cannot be used for a long time. Otherwise, it is not known whether the normal cells or the cancer cells will die first.

At this time, targeted drugs need to be taken to accurately attack the remaining cancer cells.

But there is a little trouble.
Cancer cells are actually new cells produced after gene mutation of normal cells. Their mechanism of action and reproduction method are completely different from those of traditional viruses such as hepatitis B virus.

Therefore, the traditional method of using drugs to eliminate viruses has no effect on cancer cells at all. We can only use a new treatment method to solve cancer cells through the cell's unique genetic targets.

This is why it is called targeted drug.

Therefore, for any treatment plan, once the patient needs to take targeted drugs, genetic testing must be performed first to determine which gene mutation and target the cancer cells in the body have, so as to choose which matching targeted drug to take.

However, choosing the right targeted drug does not necessarily mean that all cancer cells can be eliminated once and for all.

Due to their unique mechanism, targeted drugs cannot completely eliminate all cancer cells. They can only control the number of cancer cells as much as possible and inhibit the rapid replication of cancer cells.

In other words, targeted drugs need to be taken for a long time.

Zhang Yang quickly checked the various targeted drugs currently on the market for treating lung cancer.

Targeted drugs are divided into first, second and third generations.

At present, domestic pharmaceutical companies have made few achievements in targeted drugs for lung cancer. Major hospitals still mainly use the first-generation targeted drugs produced by the British "AstraZeneca" and the Swedish "Roche Group".

They are: "gefitinib" and "erlotinib".

Gradually, Zhang Yang saw the development of targeted drugs from the first generation to the second and third generations.

I have to say something briefly here.

Because cancer cells have a strong ability to self-evolve, they often develop drug resistance after taking targeted drugs for a period of time.

At this time, if you want to continue to control the cancer cells in the body, you must replace new targeted drugs. This is why the second and third generation targeted drugs came into being!
Not only do they have better therapeutic effects and fewer side effects than the first generation, but most importantly, they can more effectively avoid drug resistance.

of course,

Better means more expensive. For example, the first-generation imported original gefitinib costs about 2000 yuan per box, while the third-generation one can even cost more than yuan.

Therefore, many cancer patients often experience the situation where the disease spreads from one generation to three generations.

And if the third generation of drugs become resistant and the cancer cells mutate and there are no new targeted drugs to take, it will also mean the end of life.

Zhang Yang carefully studied each targeted drug, but when he saw the third-generation targeted drug "osimertinib", he was suddenly stunned.

Osimertinib is a third-generation targeted drug developed by the British company AstraZeneca. From the detailed research and development information, he noticed a familiar name:

Adrev biological laboratory in Norway.

"Ok?"

“I didn’t expect that the ‘Adrev’ biological laboratory actually has a cooperative relationship with AstraZeneca?”

"This new targeted drug 'Osimertinib', which was recently launched on the market, was actually developed in collaboration with the 'Adleev' laboratory?"

"No wonder the simulator plot takes place in the 'Adrev' biological laboratory'..."

(End of this chapter)