Cancer is a term that sends shivers down the spines of most people. For decades, a cancer diagnosis was a life-changing experience with few treatment options and unknown results. But the silver lining is that science is changing rapidly, and so is cancer treatment and monitoring. Due to revolutionary cancer therapies, more intelligent diagnostic equipment, and the intervention of technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), cancer treatment is being revolutionized like never before.
In the past, cancer therapy focused primarily on surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. These treatments, though successful in most instances, usually had intense side effects. For instance, chemotherapy targets not just cancerous cells but also normal ones, and this leads to hair loss, weakness, and compromised immunity.
Today, it's all different. With such new breakthroughs in cancer therapies as targeted therapy and immunotherapy, physicians are now capable of targeting the elimination of just the cancer cells and saving as many healthy ones as possible.
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Perhaps the largest breakthrough of current cancer therapy is targeted therapy for cancer. So, what exactly does it refer to?
Each kind of cancer is unique. Even individuals with exactly the same kind of cancer may have different responses to treatment. The reason is that the cancer-causing cells in each individual can develop various genetic changes. Targeted therapy employs drugs that specifically target the cancer cell changes without damaging normal cells.
For instance, when someone has breast cancer due to a gene named HER2, targeted treatments can oppose the action of that gene. This translates to less in the way of side effects and improved outcomes.
Targeted therapy is already in use for cancers such as lung, breast, colon, and blood cancers. And scientists are busy finding new targets for other kinds of cancers as well.
Another advancement is immunotherapy. This form of treatment does not fight the cancer itself. Rather, it assists your immune system in identifying and attacking cancer cells more efficiently.
Consider your immune system an army. In certain cancers, this army gets confused and is unable to recognize the enemy (cancer). Immunotherapy is like a set of night-vision goggles — it allows your immune system to see the enemy and attack it.
Medications known as "checkpoint inhibitors" are a frequent form of immunotherapy. They've had phenomenal success with skin cancer (melanoma), lung cancer, and others. Some patients once deemed incurable are now living longer, healthier lives.
One of the most exciting recent developments is CAR-T cell therapy, an individualized and potent type of immunotherapy.
This is how it's done: doctors harvest a patient's own T-cells (a kind of immune cell), genetically engineer them in the laboratory to identify cancer cells, and then return them to the body. These redirected T-cells are now able to recognize and kill cancer cells with accuracy.
This therapy has proved particularly effective in some blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Some of the patients with no other choices left have entered complete remission following CAR-T cell therapy.
While it's currently mainly applied to particular kinds of cancer, scientists are working to broaden its application to solid tumors (such as breast or lung cancer) in the future. It's just one more way the future of cancer treatment is becoming more personal and targeted.
Each treatment has taken years of elbow grease, study, and trials. Researchers all over the world work day and night to develop new methods of battling cancer.
Current cancer studies concentrate on:
After a person is diagnosed with cancer, it's not only about treatment. It's also crucial to continue monitoring how the body is reacting. This is where cancer monitoring tests are necessary.
These tests help doctors:
Common cancer monitoring tests include:
Now, even more sophisticated monitoring tests such as liquid biopsies are on the horizon. These can pick up cancer cells or DNA strands in a blood test, providing a non-surgical means to monitor cancer.
The earlier the cancer is discovered, the more likely it can be cured. That's why cancer diagnosis techniques are getting better each year.
Years ago, cancer usually was diagnosed late when the symptoms became severe. Today, physicians have more methods to identify cancer early.
A few of the newer diagnosis tools are:
Scientists are also working on multi-cancer blood tests that, in the future, could screen for multiple kinds of cancer in a single sample of blood. This would be a giant leap forward in being able to detect cancer before it is harmful.
Technology is having an enormous impact in healthcare today. Perhaps one of the most intriguing advancements is AI in cancer diagnosis.
AI (artificial intelligence) is sort of like a genius computer program. It has the ability to study thousands of patient images, lab reports, and histories of patients much more quickly and precisely than a human physician.
This is how AI is assisting:
AI is not intended to replace physicians, but assist them in making improved decisions quicker. It's similar to equipping physicians with a high-powered microscope and calculator all in one.
All these advances have made cancer treatment more personalized. It is no longer one size fits all for people with the same kind of cancer. Doctors are now considering an individual's genes, habits, and health condition to select the most appropriate treatment regimen.
Personalized medicine results in improved outcomes, fewer side effects, and greater comfort during treatment.
Though we speak so much of the medical treatment, let's not forget the emotional aspect of cancer as well. The diagnosis instills fear, grief, and confusion. That's why cancer treatment these days also involves mental health services.
Mental health professionals, meditation, and even music therapy are assisting patients in better accepting their ordeal. And the emotional treatment is as vital as the medical one.
The future of cancer treatment is brighter than ever:
Cancer may never be eradicated, but it's gradually becoming a condition people can live with — and even overcome — with these constant breakthroughs.
Cancer is no longer the death sentence that it used to be. Thanks to breakthrough cancer therapies, smarter cancer surveillance tests, improved methods of cancer diagnosis, and wondrous tools such as AI in cancer diagnosis, we are ushering in a new era in cancer care.
Whether it's cancer-targeted therapy or the newest cancer research being conducted in laboratories globally, each advance offers hope. And for patients and families, hope is the best medicine of all.
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