"What is a reaction stop?" Seeing that Professor Wang's reaction was too intense, Chen Yao was immediately full of curiosity about this reaction stop.

"Thalidomide is the reaction stop, and the main component is α-phthalideimide. Professor Wang remembers it very well: "It is a sedative, for various types of leprosy reactions such as fever, erythema nodosum, neuralgia, arthralgia, lymphadenopathy, etc., it has a certain curative effect, and it was widely used all over the world in the 50s and early 60s, it can effectively prevent women from vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy, so it is called a reaction stop." ”

"It can cure vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy, why haven't I heard of it?" Liu Yanqiu's pregnancy reaction back then was a memory that penetrated deep into the bone marrow.

"The drug that caused a huge disaster in the history of modern medicine!" Professor Wang shook his head: "The reaction stopped in 1953 by a West German pharmaceutical company first synthesized, in 1956 into the clinical trial and test market, in 1957 by the West German patent, this drug during the treatment of morning sickness during the first trimester, has a good antiemetic effect, no obvious toxic side effects on pregnant women, has been approved for sale in 51 countries. ”

"Isn't that great?" Chen Yao heard very clearly—there were no obvious toxic side effects on pregnant women.

"However, the use of the reaction stop hinders the blood supply to the fetus by the pregnant woman, resulting in a large number of 'seal malformation babies' being born. Professor Wang said: 'These deformed babies have no arms and legs, and their hands and feet are directly attached to the body, much like the limbs of a seal, so they are called 'seal limb deformity babies'. ”

"Ah, how could this be!" Chen Yao exclaimed.

"From 1956 to 1962, more than 30 countries and regions around the world (including Taiwan Province of China) reported more than 10,000 cases of seal fetuses, and the incidence of malformed babies in each country was positively correlated with the sales volume of reaction cessation in the same period, such as at least 6,000 cases of teratogenesis in West Germany, 5,500 such teratodies were born in the United Kingdom, about 1,000 cases in Japan, and at least 69 cases of teratogenes were born in Taiwan Province. ”

"These children are so pitiful! More than 10,000!" Liu Yanqiu remembered that if she was pregnant and gave birth at that time, her child would definitely be a victim, and her heart immediately jumped.

Professor Wang looked at Qu Guangquan: "Reaction arrest is the first drug that has been identified as a human teratogen. Since then, large-scale studies on drug teratogenicity have been carried out around the world, and the results have found that many drugs have varying degrees of teratogenic effects. The lesson is painful. ”

Professor Wang clearly disagrees with Qu Guangquan's proposal.

Qu Guangquan reminded: "Professor Wang, what you said is very correct. Fetal malformations, however, are caused by the reaction stopping the action of the newborn cells through the maternal placenta. Teacher Liu's mother does not have such a situation. ”

"Although the reaction stop can significantly stop vomiting, I don't advocate using it given its painful lesson!"

"However, Professor Wang, since you are very worried about Mr. Liu's mother's reaction to chemotherapy, why don't you change your thinking? I will take my mother as an example, my mother is much younger than Mr. Liu's mother, and her physique is better, and the chemotherapy drug used is a combination of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, which is still a little unbearable, and the situation of etoposide should be more intense. You can imagine how painful it must have been for Teacher Liu's mother!"

"Yes, what you said is very reasonable, but this is not a reason to use reaction stop, although the reaction stop is now said to treat cancer, but that is the own theory of some more radical researchers in Europe and the United States, and there is no clinical data to support it. I don't believe it. After all, the reaction is basically a banned drug now!"

"Qu Guangquan, Professor Wang is a well-known expert in China. Liu Yanqiu reminded Qu Guangquan, which meant that he would only believe Professor Wang, and it was impossible for a hairy young man to listen to the hearsay things that a hairy young man casually flipped through a book and saw.

The reason why Qu Guangquan suggested using reaction to stop was also based on the situation at the time, and the best choice was made.

This starts with the drugs used to treat tumors at that time.

At that time, there were relatively few types of drugs available for chemotherapy, and tumor chemotherapy in that era was mainly based on drugs that killed all the new cells that proliferated rapidly, so the toxic side effects of traditional chemotherapy on people were not ordinary.

It was only after the nineties that many drugs for targeted treatment of tumors in later generations have made great progress with the development of gene technology and the progress of synthetic methods.

Fortunately, at that time, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide achieved quite good results in the treatment of breast cancer, and the survival rate and cure rate were relatively high, so Qu Guangquan did not use much brains on his mother Liu Guixiang's chemotherapy.

However, Mr. Liu's mother is really different, one is lung cancer surgery, at that time, laparoscopic surgery was not carried out in the mainland, and only visible infected tissues could be removed during the operation, and some invisible tiny blood vessels and tissues were inevitably left behind, and the surgical effect was much worse than that of breast cancer.

The second is drug chemotherapy, etoposide was a relatively good chemotherapy drug at that time, but for the treatment of small cell lung cancer, it is far less effective than doxorubicin + cyclophosphamide in the treatment of breast cancer, and it is easy to recur.

Despite the sin of the reaction to stop the production of seal-born babies, thalidomide is almost banned worldwide. However, scientists have not completely rejected thalidomide, and continue to conduct in-depth research on it, especially in the pharmacology of immunity, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic and clinical treatment of some difficult diseases, and have achieved gratifying and encouraging results, so that people have a new understanding of thalidomide.

In 1991, it was found to have the effect of inhibiting tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) & amp; iexcl; & amp; ORDF – anti-inflammatory effect.

In 1994, it was found to have anti-angiogenesis effects & amp; iexcl; & amp; ordf; & amp; iexcl; & amp; ORDF;——Antitumor effect.

Later scientific development has found that inhibition of tumor angiogenesis has become a new way of tumor treatment: the mechanism of anti-tumor angiogenesis drugs has been retained, and the characteristics of drugs that directly oppose tumor angiogenesis:

1. Low toxicity

2. The intratumor blood vessels are immature and sensitive to drugs

3. Amplification effect

4. The genetic traits of endothelial cells are stable, and there is less chance of drug resistance

5. It has a synergistic effect with radiotherapy and chemotherapy

In 1998, the US FDA approved Thalidomide capsules (Thalomid) manufactured by Celgene for the treatment of erythema nodosum (ENL) of leprosy.

In May 2006, the U.S. FDA approved thalidomide capsules manufactured by Celgene for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM).

Therefore, when Mr. Liu's mother was faced with the extreme shortage of anti-tumor drugs at that time, Qu Guangquan immediately remembered thalidomide, that is, the reaction stopped.

At that time, a domestic pharmaceutical factory was still producing reactions, but it was only used for patients with erythema nodosum of leprosy skin.

It's just that it's 1988, and these follow-up studies are still only in the assumptions of some scientists, and Professor Wang, who is not a professional researcher in pharmacology, certainly can't accept it.

But obviously there is a reaction to stop using, and the effect is not bad, Qu Guangquan doesn't want Mr. Liu's mother to miss such a historical opportunity, after all, life is fragile, and if there is medicine to use, you shouldn't miss the opportunity.