Early cure rate of endometrial cancer in China

When talking about gynecological tumors, most women first think of cervical cancer, because it is the most common malignant tumor in women. However, the World Health Organization has conducted statistics on major diseases in women in recent years and found that the incidence of endometrial cancer is gradually increasing, and the incidence is gradually catching up with cervical cancer. The age of onset has dropped from 58-61 years old to 45 years old, accounting for 20% to 30% of reproductive tract malignant tumors. It is one of the major gynecological diseases that seriously endangers women's health.

The treatment for early endometrial cancer is mainly surgery-assisted radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Endometrial cancer stage Ia G1 can be cured by surgery with total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. The treatment of stage II endometrial cancer is basically similar to that of cervical cancer, that is, extensive hysterectomy plus pelvic lymph node resection.

However, the best results reported so far are combined treatment with hysterectomy after extracorporeal and intracavitary radiation. This may be because uterine cancer generally develops slowly, and most lesions are still confined to the uterus. Even if it may metastasize to the paracervical and pelvic lymph nodes, preoperative radiotherapy is expected to kill the tumor and shrink the uterine cancer. Even if the subsequent surgery is not extensive, it can be cured. On the other hand, most patients with uterine cancer are over 50 years old, many are obese, and have important medical complications such as diabetes and hypertension, which make them unsuitable for more extensive hysterectomy and regional lymph node resection. Therefore, preoperative radiotherapy has its auxiliary effect.

"Although surgery combined with radiotherapy can effectively improve the cure rate in the early treatment of endometrial cancer, the development process of some special pathological types and poorly differentiated cancers is very fast, and metastasis may occur in a short period of time. Therefore, after surgery or radiotherapy, patients should pay attention to improving the body's immunity to prevent the resurgence of tiny residual lesions that cannot be completely removed during surgery and tumor cells that are somewhat insensitive to radiotherapy, and need to strengthen late auxiliary treatment." Professor Zhu Bo, an expert in tumor research and tumor treatment at the Xinqiao Hospital of the Third Military Medical University, said.

There are many ways to improve human immunity, such as diet therapy and drug conditioning. However, diet therapy is not very ideal and the effect is relatively short-lived after surgery and radiotherapy. Drug conditioning can only temporarily regulate the physical condition, and the recovery of body functions is not very obvious, and the recovery effect of the human immune system damaged by surgery and radiotherapy is not good. The three scientists who have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have discovered through in-depth research on the immune system that dendritic cells in the human immune system have unique anti-tumor factors that activate anti-tumor factors and regulate human immunity. The dendritic cells mentioned by Steinman, one of the Nobel Prize winners in Physiology, are the most important DC cell immunotherapy in current tumor biological immunotherapy.

Professor Zhu Bo, a tumor treatment expert at the Military Cancer Research Institute of Xinqiao Hospital of the Third Military Medical University, said: "Currently, tumor biological immunotherapy is being widely used in tumor treatment by the international medical community. It can effectively improve the survival rate of patients after surgery, improve the quality of life of patients, and prolong their survival time when combined with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. At the same time, it can effectively eliminate residual tumor cells in the patient's body and prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis."

The awarding of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized the effectiveness of tumor biological immunotherapy in clinical medicine. Its emergence provides double protection for the cure rate of early-stage patients such as endometrial cancer, and also brings hope of prolonging the vitality of other cancer patients in the middle and late stages.