Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust Palliative Care Team, London, UK.
Nat Rev Cancer. 2024 Aug;24(8):578-589. doi: 10.1038/s41568-024-00708-4. Epub 2024 Jun 19.
Cancer is a major cause of global mortality, both in affluent countries and increasingly in developing nations. Many patients with cancer experience reduced life expectancy and have metastatic disease at the time of death. However, the more precise causes of mortality and patient deterioration before death remain poorly understood. This scarcity of information, particularly the lack of mechanistic insights, presents a challenge for the development of novel treatment strategies to improve the quality of, and potentially extend, life for patients with late-stage cancer. In addition, earlier deployment of existing strategies to prolong quality of life is highly desirable. In this Roadmap, we review the proximal causes of mortality in patients with cancer and discuss current knowledge about the interconnections between mechanisms that contribute to mortality, before finally proposing new and improved avenues for data collection, research and the development of treatment strategies that may improve quality of life for patients.
癌症是全球死亡的主要原因，在富裕国家和发展中国家都越来越严重。许多癌症患者的预期寿命缩短，并且在死亡时已经发生转移。然而，导致死亡和患者在死亡前恶化的更精确原因仍知之甚少。这种信息的缺乏，特别是缺乏对机制的深入了解，给开发新的治疗策略以提高晚期癌症患者的生活质量并可能延长其生命带来了挑战。此外，非常需要尽早采用现有的延长生命质量的策略。在本路线图中，我们回顾了癌症患者死亡的近端原因，并讨论了导致死亡的机制之间的相互联系的现有知识，最后提出了新的和改进的数据收集、研究和治疗策略开发途径，这可能会提高患者的生活质量。
