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CURRENT & EMERGING TREATMENTS FOR CANCER
 By KANZA BATOOL HAIDER


For years, cancer has claimed many lives. US has acknowledged it to be the second most common cause of death, with mortality rate spiking to 50%. The incidence rate for all the cancers combined in United States alone, in 1945, was marked by 400 hundred new cases for every 100,000 people. In 1971 President Nixon, considering the casualties caused by it, declared to wage a ‘War on Cancer’ and endowed large investments for research on cancer to find antidotes for the disease. Since then, scientific efforts towards cancer research have been intensified. This has marked several breakthroughs in the history of medical science.

BORON NEUTRON CAPTURE THEORY BCNT- NANO CHEMISTRY AT ITS EXTREME

The latest discovery that scientists have proudly come up with, is the “Boron Neutron Capture Therapy”, or BNCT in short. According to Hawthorne, a recent winner of the National Medal of Science awarded by President Obama at White House, this new therapy of BNCT would take advantage of cancer cell’s biology using nano-chemistry.  Cancer cells grow profusely and are also viable to absorb more material inside themselves than normal cells. BCNT would act smartly taking advantage of this fact and interject boron designed chemical within cancer cells. This way, the exposure of neutron, a sub atomic particle to the boron-infused-cancer cells will release lithium, helium and energy. Upon capturing a neutron boron will shatter, selectively tearing apart the cancerous cells only, such that the neighboring cells remain unharmed. Hawthorn very much optimistic about his latest discovery of radiation therapy said that BCNT can deal with a large variety of cancerous cells. The therapy had worked marvelous when tested on mice and added further that before they begin with it on humans, they would first have to build suitable facilities and equipment. It’s after that they will have their first radiant therapy of this kind in the world! 

RADIOACTIVE GOLD NANOPARTICLES- A GOLDMINE STRUCK…!



Researchers of University of Missouri have come up with other groundbreaking invention in this course. Kattesh Kattie, a curators' professor of radiology and physics, says “We’ve struck a goldmine!” The goldmine is actually the gold salt mixed with tea to breakdown into nanoparticles. For years, the power of radioactive gold nanoparticles to destroy the cancerous cells was known, but the secret was how to deliver it to the target cancerous cells without conflicting with normal cells. The Research team recently revealed the secret in coating gold radioactive nanoparticle with the chemical of tea. The compound in the tea has a natural instinct of attraction towards tumor cells in the prostate. When coated with it, radioactive gold nanoparticles attack straight to the cancerous cells. Kattie related this theory with a limousine car, with limousine being the tea and nanoparticles being the riders. “The particles get onboard- the limousine goes to the tumor- the passengers get out to see the horror of tumor and start fighting”, he said. The science behind the idea is simple and the researchers are increasingly determined to make the technology reach everyone soon. It is expected to have the treatment available for as little as five years. Currently the research team is busy on testing it on dogs which are believed to be the only animals apart from humans that gets the prostate cancer naturally. 

IMMUNEOTHERAPY- EDUCATING PATIENT'S IMMUNE CELLS TO FIGHT CANCER!


Northwest Bio Therapeutics, a development stage biotechnology company brings forth a new and mind boggling approach to fight cancer using man’s own immune system. This approach is leading the way to cancer treatment by adding number of years to surviving lifespan, without any deleterious side effects on the overall system of the body and replacing expensive drugs with a much cost effective solution. High rated drugs do a very little on the expense of intoxicating the body with serious detrimental side effects. The solution of fighting such cancer cells in a cost effective way lies in personalizing the immune therapies, i.e. activating the patient’s own immune system for combating the deadly cells. The immune therapy comprises of two key ingredients, the master cells of immune system and bio-markers of patient’s tumor. Cancer cells are quite similar to the immune cells therefore the immune cells can’t recognize it. Therefore, the immune cells withdrawn out from the blood of the patient is “educated’ to recognize the bio markers of the tumor cell. These ‘educated’ immune cells prepare the rest of the immune system for an attack on the enemy tumor cells. The only battle that occurs is between the tumor and the immune cells while the normal cells enjoy viewing the fight, untouched, unharmed. The vaccine may be directly injected into one or more tumor cells if they are inoperable. In the experiment performed, the results were amazing, immune therapy extended the survival of the patient not to months but in years! Two of the patients even clutched ten further years of life. Life expectancy was increased by 14 months to 3 years (average) and tumor recurrence from 7 months to 2 years. Immune therapy involves a total of eleven treatments throughout the year, with three treatments in the first year followed up by several boosters over the span of one year. Two more treatments is for maintenance. Being very much enthusiastic about their innovation, BW bio expressed their joy for the striking and the consistent results of their experiments and came down with proposing to further enhance their immune therapy products to cope with multiple cancers. Immune therapy for solid tumors that can be surgically removed is already under way at 45 medical centers all across the US and is planning to begin with marking up to 30 hospitals in Europe that are expected to be done by next year. A large trial of immune therapy for all types of inoperable solid tumors is expected to begin to begin within the next couple of weeks at major institutions in the US. 

GENE THERAPY- WONDERS OF GENES


The latest breakthrough in gene therapy has clearly set high hopes for the successful treatment of cancer. It requires the use of patient’s genetic pattern to fight the cancerous cells. Currently, gene therapy is under research and is being tested on many types of cancers and different other diseases. However, it is not available outside the clinical trial as yet. There are more than one way to fight cancer using gene therapy. According to one approach, the genetically modified genes are infused to target healthy cells preparing them for fight against the cancerous cells. The missing or altered genes are replaced by healthy ones. As missing or altered genes are the cause behind cancer, substituting ‘working copies’ of it may help eliminate the cancerous cells. Another approach is to enhance the immune system of the patient using gene therapy. In this case, gene therapy is used to serve immune therapy. The gene therapy excites the immune system for an attack on the cancer cells. A certain protein called a T-cell receptor (TCR) is released when the cell is infused with the gene and is sent to the patient’s white blood cells. The white blood cells produce the same protein and make an outer lining surrounding its surface. The protein TCR is capable of recognizing the tumor cells and gets attached over their surface. In this way, the attached TCRs call the white blood cells to finish off the tumor cells. Scientists are researching over ways to make the gene therapy sensitive to chemotherapy, radiation therapy and other treatments. The genes are inserted into the cells of the patients to make them resistant to the side effects brought about by high doses of anti-cancer drugs. Gene injected cells are sent back into patient. Another approach adopted by the scientists is introducing “suicide genes” into the patient’s cancerous cells. With patient’s intake of a pro-drug, the suicide genes in the cancerous cells are activated leading to the destruction of the cancerous cells. Other researches are focusing on the prevention of cancer cells developing new blood vessels (angiogenesis) using the gene therapy. Gene insertion into the cells is not a direct method. The cells are exposed to a vector that is most commonly a virus. These viruses have a special quality of identifying the cancerous cells. These are inserted in the gene inside cell’s DNA. Even after too much research, the idea is still under study as the goal is to properly eliminate any sort of mishap, that if happens may be detrimental. Studies are being done to avoid the viruses infect more than one type of cell. Genes if inserted into wrong location in the DNA may cause harmful mutations and may lead to further thriving of cancer. Furthermore, there is a possibility that genes inserted “overexpresses”, thus producing so much of the missing protein that it causes inflammation making the immune system to react against it. Scientists are involved with experiments on animals to identify and avoid such risks before coming over to humans. 

RADIANT FREQUENCY THERAPY- A PROMISING TREATMENT APPROACH


A promising new cancer treatment that is believed to be taking the place of radiation and chemotherapy is edging near to human trials. “Kanzius RF therapy”, name of the therapy, attaches microscopic nanoparticles to cancer cells and burns the tumor away. Harmless, nontoxic and non-invasive radio waves used in this case combines with gold or carbon nanoparticles. It is currently being tested at M.D Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston. The FDA approval has intensified research in this field, however some questions related to the safety of the nano particles still remain unanswered. In trials on animal and human cells, the RF treatment destroyed 100 percent of malignant cells injected with nanoparticles, without harming surrounding healthy tissue. “We know it has the potential to work well,” said Gannon. "It’s just a matter of making the details work."

ROBOTIC SURGERY- AN NEW EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY


Robotic surgery for prostate cancer as for now may seem to be skyrocketing, however the good news is that FDA has approved the first successful robotic surgery in abdominal and pelvic. It is increasingly believed that this new technology for cancer treatment will not leave behind any traces for the conventional means of surgery particularly laparoscopic. "I think that traditional open and laparoscopic prostatectomies have faded," said Dr. Lavery, a urologic surgeon at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. A robotic radical prostatectomy is a surgeon-directed robotic procedure where a machine called the “da Vinci” robot does the surgery in the same fashion like that of open surgery. The difference lies in the length of incision. It just makes 4 to 6 small incisions each 5 to 12mm in length unlike the open surgery that makes large incision from belly button down to pubic bone. These small incisions allow the instrument to perform through ports or hollow cylindrical instrument without having to use surgeon’s hand inside the patient. Moreover, Robotic surgery gives better angles for surgery and shows a magnified three dimensional image of the surgical field, that also in the same depth as viewing with our own eyes. 

CONCLUSION

Some of the doctors and researchers also have a belief that cancer treatment should be customized to patient’s individual genetic makeup. While some also have a say that nutritional therapy may treat a cancer patient well off than imagined. Every discovery and attempt to eradicate cancer significantly stands at its place, playing a valuable role for the rest of humanity and pushing it to the ultimate goal. All that has been done, however, has still not been able to find the exact antidote for the disease, but we are not far from it. The War on Cancer will continue until there is no patient left. The ultimate mission is to have all patients go back to their home   in high spirits of leading a much brighter and healthier life ahead!  J Good wishes to all!





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