How about targeted drugs for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

With the continuous development of society, there are more and more methods to treat tumors. Among them, targeted therapy is a better method to treat tumors in recent years, especially targeted therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Although targeted therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is no longer news, there are still not many people who really know about targeted therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. So, how about targeted drugs for nasopharyngeal carcinoma?

We probably don't know much about targeted therapy. Targeted therapy is a type of therapy that can inhibit the occurrence and development of tumors or eliminate tumors through multiple mechanisms. So how effective is targeted therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma? With the continuous improvement of medical technology, there are more and more ways to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma, including: radiotherapy, surgical treatment, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine treatment. Radiotherapy is the first choice in clinical practice.

China is a high-incidence area for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In recent years, comprehensive and individualized treatment for patients with advanced stage has become an important means to improve local control and survival rate. Molecular biological modification therapy has important clinical effects, which works by regulating cell biological activities and host immune response, including cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, immune effector cells, immunostimulants, gene drugs and non-cytotoxic small molecule target drugs.

In recent years, more and more molecular targeted drugs have been used in the combined radiotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. They can more specifically block the signal transduction pathways that play a key role in the growth of tumor cells. While killing tumor cells, they reduce the impact on normal cells and improve the patient's radiotherapy survival rate and quality of life. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in 95% to 100% of head and neck tumors and has become an important target for targeted treatment of head and neck tumors. The EGFR monoclonal antibody inhibitor cetuximab (Erbitux) has been approved by the FDA as a drug that can be combined with chemoradiotherapy for the treatment of head and neck tumors in patients with initial treatment. The results of domestic Phase III clinical trials show that the targeted treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with cetuximab combined with synchronous chemoradiotherapy has improved the local control rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients (the effectiveness rate reached 99%) without increasing toxic and side effects.