Cancer can seemingly strike a family from anywhere. Cancer doesn’t seem to discriminate as it chooses targets who have to deal with this life threatening condition. Cancer is truly the modern scourge of the medical profession. Cancer and cancer treatments may be the most researched medical issue ever. Almost everyone has heard of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer. These are fairly well known, fight cancer, and feature a lot of disturbing and struggling side effects. However, since the alternative is often death, the treatment is worth trying. Even these methods are often being researched to try to make them more effective and less stressful to the patient. There are also a wide number of other primary cancer treatments available as well. New complementary treatments are also under development too. These work to help alleviate the symptoms and side effects that may be caused by primary treatment. Many of the “miracle cures” that may be falsely advertised as cancer curing are actually these complementary treatments. Take this opportunity to learn more about the new waves of cancer treatment that can hopefully one day put an end to this dreadful disease once and for all.
Immunotherapy
The immune system is truly a wonderful thing. It manages to diagnose and eliminate invaders that enter the body. Sadly, cancer cells often find ways around this. They can sometimes evade the notice of the immune system. Other cancerous cells may not be targeted aggressively enough by the immune system. Immunotherapy makes use of the immune system and finds a way to make it target these cancerous cells.
One of the newest methods is a sort of “marker” system. The cancer cells get marked so that the immune system can more clearly see and get to them. These are especially useful in combination with medications to boost the body’s immune system strength.
Another method involves enhancing the T cells produced by the immune system. They are taken from the body and have additional genes placed into them. This treatment results in T cells that are far superior in tracking down cancer cells and eliminating them from the body. This treatment is currently only applied to specific people with a specific leukemia. The goal is to expand it to a further grouping of people and other cancers. While that hasn’t happened yet, it’s a fantastic example of the new types of immunotherapy treatments being developed!
Individualized Targeted Drug Treatment
This can sometimes also be known as “Personalized Medicine”. The treatment of cancer used to be fairly simple. The same treatments were given to people with the same types of cancers. These would vary just as much as the number of different cancers that people had. Research has determined that even though two people may have the exact same type of cancer at the same stage, treatment that works for one could be a colossal failure for another. Personalized medicine looks at the very specifics of a person’s cells and genes. This highly detailed analysis can often reveal treatments that weren’t expected. For example, picture two patients with pancreatic cancer. After analysis of the specific cells, it’s noted that one features very high levels of hyaluronic acid. There’s a counteractive drug which can be taken. Once taken, it breaks down this acid and opens up the cells. From there, the immune system and other cancer medications actually can get straight to the problem areas more easily and effectively. In the past, this likely would not have been noted, but these sorts of individualized treatment plans are becoming more and more common for different types of cancers.
Treating the Treatment
One area where new development research has really taken place is in combating the side effects that cancer treatments can cause. More doctors that ever before are excited about using complementary treatments to help assist in dealing with many of the painful side effects. What’s interesting is how many of these treatments are older or well known options outside of the traditional medicinal rubicon.
Acupuncture has been around for many centuries, but use to assist with cancer treatments has never been so widespread. Nausea, fatigue, depression, hot flashes and pain are often reported to be far less after undergoing acupuncture. Massage is also a common complementary treatment and can also assist with the tremendous levels of stress that every cancer patient is undergoing. Some can use aromatherapy for similar benefits. There are supplements, vitamins, herbs and various extracts that can sometimes provide benefits. The key with all complementary medications is to never disregard the primary treatment of cancer. Doctors can help determine which complementary treatment might be beneficial to each individual patient.