"A current look at cancer in Chile": Researcher exposed the main problems surrounding the disease
08-20-2021
Erick Riquelme, Doctor in Biological Sciences and researcher at the U. Mayor Integrative Biology Center, led a new date of The Thought Route, where he addressed the process of tumors, the main treatments, the latest findings for future drugs, and the multiple factors that influence cancer, which transform it into a highly complex condition. Check out the full exhibit HERE.
At a new date in the U. Mayor's Route of Thought cycle, the expert Erick Riquelme, Doctor of Biological Sciences and researcher at the U. Mayor Center for Integrative Biology, led the talk entitled “A current look at cancer in Chile”.
In it, the specialist addressed in a simple way what is happening in Chile and globally with this disease, which, as he indicated, "it is a global health problem."
In Chile, the researcher indicated, cancer is the second cause of death after cardiovascular diseases, but it is estimated that in the short term it will become the first. In addition, he pointed out that about 55,000 new cases appear each year in the country, while the number of deaths would approach 30,000 annually.
In other words, 7 new cases are diagnosed every hour, and 70 deaths occur daily from this disease. "If we take it to what happens with Covid, it is very close to what happens with this pathology, but (cancer) is a pandemic that has been affecting us for a long time," said Riquelme.
In Chile, he added, lung cancer today is the leading cause of death from cancer, and it is also the world's leading cause, "so it is a problem that we have to attack, study and try to understand why it is killing a lot of people ”, reflected the expert.
In his presentation, Riquelme delved into the development of tumors and their great complexity; the types of cancer therapy and how they work; and how the study of tumors allows to determine the way in which the disease can behave in a person, and the most suitable treatments to try to control it.
In addition, he referred to the newest and most relevant scientific findings for the fight against cancer, and one of the greatest challenges for experts: to face the resistance that tumors develop to therapies.
At that point, he addressed how the role of the gut microbiota can play an important role in determining the ability to respond or not to immunotherapy.
"We are facing a difficult disease," emphasized the researcher, "since it not only depends on the tumor cell, the context where it is, but also a multiplicity of factors that come with the particularities of each patient". "That's why when I talk about cancer I like to clarify that it is a complex issue, and that the success of a therapy depends on all these factors", he concluded.
Check out the complete presentation by Erick Riquelme, Doctor in Biological Sciences and researcher at the U. Mayor Center for Integrative Biology. Click Here
