ADC precisely attacks cancer cells, and the lesions of an elderly woman with terminal cancer are gone in half a year

ADC drugs that combine chemotherapy with monoclonal antibodies bring new hope to terminal cancer patients. They can improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment while reducing damage to normal cells and reducing side effects.

Prolong patient survival

Chen Junyi said that ADC drugs are a major breakthrough in cancer treatment and can help improve the survival rate of patients with advanced cancer.

A clinical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this year found that the use of ADC drugs in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma can reduce the mortality rate by 53% (compared to chemotherapy). The median survival time of the chemotherapy group was 16.1 months, while the median survival time of the ADC drug group was 31.5 months.

Currently, clinical trials of ADC drugs for treating more types of cancer are underway, including breast cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

ADC is an upgraded version of chemotherapy

“ADC drugs are a small portion of a chemotherapy drug attached to an antibody, and the antibody delivers the drug directly to the tumor,” Eric P. Winer, MD, director of the Yale Cancer Center at the Yale School of Medicine, told Health 1+1.

The structure of ADC drugs (Antibody Drug Conjugates) is divided into three parts:

1. Monoclonal antibody: a targeted antibody currently used in cancer treatment.

2. Chemical linker: connects the target antibody to the anti-cancer chemotherapy drug.

3. Payload: small molecule anticancer drugs with cytotoxicity.

Chen Junyi said that when the ADC drug is injected into the patient’s body, the targeted antibody will recognize some special oncogenic proteins or characteristic proteins on the cancer cells. After the targeted antibody finds the cancer cells, it will bind to the cancer cells. ADC is internalized into the cancer cells through receptor-mediated endocytosis, and then releases the chemotherapy drugs on the linker. The drugs will accurately attack the DNA substances in the cancer cells and “explode” the cancer cells.