While a cure for cancer has yet to been found, striking progress has been made in cancer research.
According to oncologist Michael Gallagher of the Sparta Cancer Center in New Jersey, “we may see a change in the way doctors and patients view cancer that will transform the future of cancer research and the lives of individuals suffering from the disease”.
Targeted therapies
Cancer cells differ from normal cells in various ways, including their ability to replicate without limit, avoid cell death, and create blood vessels for oxygen. Because these processes need molecules such as proteins or hormones, one new trend in cancer treatment involves trying to interfere with these molecules by using targeted therapies.
In contrast to chemotherapy or radiotherapy (which can destroy tumours but also damage surrounding healthy tissue), a more effective and less harmful therapy, such as the breast cancer medication tamoxifen, now acts only on the cancer cells. (For generic names visit www.drugs.com/international/tamoxifen.html).
According to Gallagher, “every individual has a genetic makeup and every cancer has a genetic makeup.… We personalize the dosing and the drug to the disease and to the individual”. To do this, researchers use biomarkers (substances produced by cancer cells or the body in response to cancer that identify or “mark” the specific type of cancer a person has). Blood, urine and tissue tests are used to measure biomarkers.
Gallagher is hopeful that cancer will soon be seen as a chronic disease that people can live with and manage, much like heart disease and diabetes.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy (biologic therapy or biotherapy) uses certain parts of a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer.
For a long time doctors suspected that the immune system could affect certain cancers. Even before the immune system was well understood, William Coley, a New York surgeon, first noted that getting an infection after surgery seemed to help some cancer patients. In the late 1800s, he began treating cancer patients by infecting them with certain kinds of bacteria, which came to be known as Coley toxins. However, his technique was overshadowed when other forms of cancer treatment, such as radiation therapy, came into use.
Since then, doctors have learned a great deal about the immune system and how it might be used to treat cancer. Newer types of immune treatments are now being studied which will impact how we treat cancer in future.
Predictive tool
Southwestern Medical Center researchers are developing a way to help people with breast cancer and certain lung cancers decide whether follow-up radiation or chemotherapy treatments are likely to help.
Sources
www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/immunotherapy/immunotwww.therapy-what-is-immunotherapy
www.cancerresearch.org
www.novasans.com/articles/Immunotherapy
www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/news-releases/year-2014/march/gene-cancer-treatment.html