1.Legal regulation of egg freezing and transfer: from the medical model to the social model
Chinese Medical Ethics 2025;38(5):647-655
Egg freezing and transfer technology play an important role in addressing the issues of aging and low birthrate. However, current laws adopt a “medical model” that strictly limits this technology to medical purposes.The legal system should shift from a “medical model” to a “social model,” granting women the right to autonomously choose to freeze their eggs for non-medical indications. In conjunction with the implementation of the “social model”, it is necessary to reconstruct the principle of public welfare based on the concept of solidarity, ensuring the accessibility and fairness of technology. Meanwhile, the principle of the best interests of future generations should be prioritized to protect their well-being, and systematic supervision should be improved through the risk-monitoring model. In terms of specific rules, a pre-consultation system should be constructed to guarantee that women are fully informed and have complete self-determination in social egg freezing; the right to know the genetic origins of offspring should be confirmed to ensure that children have the right to access their genetic information; as well as an independent reproductive medicine ethics committee should be established to configure special ethical review rules suitable for egg freezing and transfer, to avoid the risk of technological abuse.
2.Research progress on programmed death receptor 1/ ligand 1 inhibitor in immunotherapy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
ZENG Fei ; LU Jie ; SUN Renhao ; FANG Yikang ; YU Wenyi ; YANG Fang ; ZHAO Lu
Journal of Prevention and Treatment for Stomatological Diseases 2021;29(10):706-710
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common malignant tumor that seriously threatens human health and life. With increasing studies on the mechanism of tumor immune escape, programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand receptor 1 (PD-L1) have been proven to be involved in tumor immune escape. The primary mechanism is that PD-1 recruits protein tyrosine phosphatase (SHP-2) to dephosphorylate downstream tyrosine kinase (SyK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), thereby inhibiting downstream protein kinase B (AKT), extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) and other important signaling pathways, ultimately inhibiting T cell activation. In recent years, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have become popular immunotherapies. Pembrolizumab and nivolumab have been approved for HNSCC patients by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Both durvalumab and atezolizumab are still in clinical trials, and published data show that both have certain safety and efficacy but still need much clinical data to support them. Meanwhile, the combination of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy is still controversial in terms of clinical efficacy and adverse events, and further research is needed. However, serious immune-related adverse reactions limit the clinical application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, despite promising curative effects. Therefore, developing novel inhibitors and investigating stable and effective biomarkers and upstream and downstream signaling mechanisms are urgent issues.