The initial treatment of cancer started when we noticed that people accidentally exposed to a certain poisonous gas suffered from immune depletion. The gas made their immune system weak.
We thought: maybe that gas could be useful when given to people with immune systems that were cancerous and growing too fast?
Doing so had some effect and led to the initial treatments for chemotherapy.
The problem is that this type of treatment tends to be non-specific. It targets rapidly dividing cells and can be very toxic to normal cells.
The next wave of treatments took advantage of increases in knowledge of some of the molecular pathways involved in the development of cancer.
For instance, we noticed that estrogen plays a role in the development of breast tumors. This led to the development of drugs like Tamoxifen, which act to inhibit it.
We are now really entering the third wave of chemotherapy which has a few main domains of drug action.
1) Monoclonal antibodies
We are increasingly able to identify a molecule that is associated with a cancer and then to develop monoclonal antibodies which target it. The prime example of this approach is Herceptin, which targets HER2+ cells.
2) Anti-angiogenesis
The theory that cutting the blood supply off from tumors could help treat it is a very promising one. Yet there remains a great deal of work to be done before anti-angiogenesis really comes into play in the treatment of cancer.
3) Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors
Inhibiting tyrosine kinases associated with cancer is an extremely promising area. The main example of a successful Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor is Gleevec, and there has been a great deal of advances since then.
These are some of the most promising approaches that may play a role in the treatment of cancer.
About this Author
David Gurevich loves analyzing conditions and medications!
You can learn more about the potential of Wellbutrin and anxiety which discusses the potential of Wellbutrin to cause anxiety.
Or about the ways to lower blood pressure, which is important for health in general if it is too high.
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