China is a "big cancer country" with the population attacked by cancers ranking first in the world, which is a problem the Chinese patients and medical workers have to face. The cancer treatment mainly depended on traditional means such as chemotherapy for a long time in China, however, those traditional means have big side effects and offer limited help to the lives, treatment, and survival time of patients. The targeted cancer therapies have gained great development in recent years, countries including China are competing to lay out the targeted drugs, and China lags behind the European and American developed countries in terms of targeted drug layout, however, it has been catching up fast and obtained great progress in recent years.
According to the China Cancer Report 2017 of the National Cancer Center of China, the total number of Chinese cancer patients accounted for 40% of the total of the world, and there were up to 10,000 newly confirmed cancer patients every day. The cancer treatment level has been greatly improved in recent years owing to the introduction of the targeted drugs, for example, since the relevant targeted drug was first introduced to China in 2005, the five-year survival rate of the advanced lung cancer patients has increased from 8% to 18%, however, so far, the layout of targeted cancer drugs in China has been relatively lagging behind the Europe and America, and the cancer treatment level needs to be improved in China. It is reported that the five-year survival rate of all cancer types is less than 40% in China, while that already reached 70% in the U.S. early in 2012.
Table I An Overview of the Various Targeted Cancer Drugs Marketed in China
|
Indication |
Drug name |
Target |
Newly marketed in 2017? |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lung cancer |
Gefitinib |
EGFR |
No |
|
Erlotinib |
EGFR |
No |
|
|
Osimertinib (AZD9291) |
EGFR |
Yes |
|
|
Afatinib |
EGFR, HER2 |
Yes |
|
|
Crizotinib |
ALK, MET, ROS1 |
No |
|
|
Bevacizumab |
VEGF |
No |
|
|
Breast cancer |
Trastuzumab |
HER2 |
No |
|
Lapatinib |
HER2, EGFR |
No |
|
|
Everolimus |
mTOR |
No |
|
|
Colorectal cancer |
...
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