Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Fortunately, humanity’s ability to treat cancer has been steadily improving for years. None of the treatments are perfect, and failure to diagnose cancer on time often occurs when people fail to get regular examinations, according to the attorneys at Cohen, Placitella & Roth, P.C. That said, a patient’s odds of survival have never been higher. That still isn’t enough to satisfy the world’s scientists, who are still working on a variety of promising new treatment methods to boost those odds even more.
Blood Cell Modifications
Many cancer treatments involve exposing the patient to harmful compounds. They work as a cure because they kill the cancer cells, but they can also kill healthy cells. One of the emerging treatment options avoids that problem by reprogramming the the patient’s white blood cells to target the cancer cells.
This is significantly healthier than chemotherapy because it is targeted. White blood cells only destroy specific cells that have been marked for destruction. Cancer cells normally lack those markings, which is one of the reasons that the body’s immune system has trouble dealing with it. This method adds cancer cells to the list of targets, so the white blood cells can purge them while ignoring healthy cells in the area.
Treating Cancer With Mixed Drugs
That doesn’t mean the chemotherapy is obsolete. It’s a harsh treatment, but doctors use it because it works. That having been said, they are always on the lookout for new drugs and combinations thereof that can help their patients.
Researchers recently found that applying a combination of drugs to treat pancreatic and breast cancer instead of a single drug can increase a patient’s lifespan. The downside to this treatment is that side effects also become more prominent. This creates a trade between life expectancy and quality of life that might not be appropriate for every patient, but certainly has a place in the doctor’s repertoire.
Personalized Treatments
There is still a great deal about cancer that doctors don’t understand. One recent study revealed that patients who suffer from small cell lung cancer can have several different types of tumor at the same time. Each type calls for a different treatment, so this realization is likely to lead to more successful treatments in the future. It also indicates that a more personalized approach may be necessary to make sure that each patient’s care is optimized to deal with the specifics of their cancer, which will not be exactly the same as any other case.