The battle against cancer has long involved the use of chemotherapy, a powerful treatment that aims to disrupt the metabolic activity within cancer cells, ultimately leading to their demise. However, while chemotherapy has proven effective in combating cancer, its side effects have made it a challenging option for many patients. In this video, we delve into the world of cancer treatment, exploring the nuances of chemotherapy and the evolving landscape of targeted therapies.
Chemotherapy has been a lifesaver for a lot of cancer patients, and it is the use of drugs to treat cancer. With Chemo, a patient can get one or a combination of different drugs to tackle the cancer. Its use also depends on what it is expected to do, as some would kill the cancer cells completely, while others would make it easy for surgical procedures to be possible. There are also times when a chemo is done to manage patient symptoms when a cure isn't visible.
commons.wikimedia
People who suffer from Testicular cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, and Acute Lymphocytic leukemia can be treated with chemotherapy. Drugs such as Doxorubicin can be used to treat certain types of dividing cells and so it would target cancer cells but as you would imaging, it would affect other normal dividing cells. You might ask why the drugs are targeting dividing cells, but the truth is cancer cells love to divide rapidly, so most cancer drugs target that but then there can be collateral damages to cells like hair cells, cells in the stomach lining, and immune cell that have to reproduces regularly.
While chemotherapy has done a great job, scientist are looking at targeted and personalized therapies where the cancer is the targeted cell, and leaving the non-cancerous cells alone. This has to do with Small-molecule drugs that interferes with molecular processes that only cancer cells have. With that there are no collateral damages like the cells that replicate in chemotherapy. Drugs such as Imatinib is used to treat leukemia as it shuts down the growth from the molecule BCR-ABL in the cell by stopping growth signal. With Leukemia cancer, the molecule BCR-ABL occurs as a result of two different chromosome which fuses in one place thereby signaling growth hormones into the stratosphere.
The FDA has been reviewing over 100 drugs that inhibits BCR-ABL just like Immatinib but while this is a good thing, we need to state that these drugs are specific, which means that while it might work for one type of cancer, it might not work on another type.
Another target in cancerous cells are monoclonal antibodies which can block the cancer cells from growing, call the attention of the immune system to the cells, and can deliver chemicals to kill the cancerous cells. Drugs like that are Trastuzumab-Deruxtecan attaches to HER2 protein on the cancer cell which helps the cell to divide but when it attaches, it blocks the cell from growing. Another drug is Pembrolizumab which attaches to proteins on the immune cells, thereby increasing their ability to identify and eliminate cancer cells.
wikimedia
People who have certain mutations in genes such as cancers with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations can be susceptible to PARP inhibitor drugs. Since science is looking at specific therapy, some breast cancers have estrogen receptors, while some don't. Some drugs such as Tamoxifen are able to block breast cancers with estrogen receptors but the drugs would not work on breast cancers with no estrogen receptors.
Understanding the molecular structure of the cancer as well as the person who has the cancer can help science find the exact drug to target that cancer, without affecting our normal cells. While chemo is still not going anywhere, at least for now, targeted and personalized therapies are being improved on, and soon we would reach a state where we can target certain cancers. Let's not forget that all cancers cells are not the same, even when they grow from the same parent, also all humans have different genes, so this will be looking as specifically targetting a cancer on a personal level.
Reference
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9640784/
- https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/intervention/trastuzumab-deruxtecan?redirect=true
- https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/breast-cancer/treatment/targeted-therapy-for-breast-cancer.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3063418/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10073599/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7295948/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9421657/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10026764/
- https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2022/enhertu-her2-low-breast-cancer