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

Chen Junyi said that the cancer cells targeted by ADC drugs sometimes also occur in normal cells, so some rare and special side effects may occur, including inflammation of the eyelashes, dry eyes, and keratitis; even the chemotherapy drugs carried by some ADC drugs are likely to be transmitted to the alveoli and cause interstitial lung disease.

A study published in 2020 found that 2.4% of HER2-positive breast cancer patients developed interstitial lung disease to varying degrees after receiving anti-HER2 targeted therapy or ADC drug treatment. Among them, the incidence of interstitial lung disease in patients receiving the ADC drug Trastuzumab Deruxtecan exceeded 10%, and about 2% of patients died as a result.

The promise of ADC therapy

Chen Junyi said that ADC drugs are currently in their infancy, and are mostly used for metastatic or recurrent cancers, especially for cancers that have become resistant to chemotherapy and are no longer treatable with standard therapies. He said that clinical trials for early breast cancer are also underway. He hopes that ADC drugs can be combined with different immunotherapy drugs, targeted therapy drugs, and radiotherapy to improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment and reduce the side effects of treatment.

As a breast cancer expert, Winer said that breast cancer patients can expect more and more effective ADC drugs in the future, and believes that this treatment will become more and more popular.