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!
Obesity refers to an excess of body fat. Obesity is defined in terms of body mass
index (BMI) measured as weight in k.g. divided by height in meter
square. For example a person weighs 61 k.g.(135 lbs) with height
5'8" which is 1.7 meter, so BMI is 61 / 1.7x1.7(2.89) = 21 k.g/m2. BMI between 18.5-24.9 is healthy
weight. Below 18.5 is underweight ,25-29.9 is over-weight and over 30 is
obesity. Over 40 is morbid obesity.
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