Understanding Targeted Treatments
Posted 2/15/2012
Posted in
There is a lot of discussion about targeted therapies emerging for cancer treatment. What does this mean? Why are they better? The short answer is that we hope they will be more effective for any one individual, and we know that they generally come with many fewer side effects than "normal" chemotherapy. Targeted therapies rarely cause hair loss, and the related fatigue or GI problems are usually fewer.
If you want more than an answer than this, please read this excellent description from Cancer Net. I give you the introduction and then a link:
Understanding Targeted Treatments
Watch the Cancer.Net Video: What is Targeted Therapy? with Nicholas Vogelzang, MD, adapted from this content.
Until recently, cancer treatment was largely based on the location in the body where the tumor began, such as the lung or breast. Now, cancer treatment increasingly depends on specific factors of a person's tumor, such as gene mutations (changes) or proteins that are often characteristic of cancer cells, regardless of the original location of the cancer. Targeted therapy is a treatment that targets a cancer's specific genes, proteins, or the tissue environment that contributes to cancer growth and survival. Unlike previous generations of cancer chemotherapies that were developed to interfere with cancer cells as they divide into new cancer cells, a targeted treatment is designed to turn off a signal that tells cells to divide or to delay cell death.
Continue reading the rest of the article...
Tags: