Cancer is responsible for one in six deaths worldwide, making it a critical global health concern. In India, one in nine people is likely to develop cancer during their lifetime. This condition can be aggressive, impacting a patient’s overall health and mental well-being. However, treatment options are advancing rapidly beyond conventional methods.
Targeted therapies, which address specific genetic mutations driving cancer growth, offer personalized care with fewer side effects by focusing on malignant cells while largely sparing healthy ones. Immunotherapy, which harnesses the body’s immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells, has shown durable remissions in some patients. Stem cell therapy, a regenerative medicine approach, has the potential to treat both primary and metastatic cancers and repair damaged tissues.
Nanotechnology is transforming cancer treatment by delivering drugs directly to tumors and improving diagnostic imaging. Ablation therapy, a minimally invasive procedure, uses heat or cold to destroy malignant tissue without the need for open surgery. Research is also investigating the potential of natural antioxidants to neutralize harmful free radicals and potentially prevent cancer.
Preclinical and clinical studies are showing promising results for emerging therapies like ferroptosis-based therapy, which induces an iron-dependent form of cell death, sonodynamic therapy, which activates anti-cancer drugs using ultrasound, and chemodynamic therapy, which generates reactive oxygen species to kill cancer cells. While radionics remains scientifically unproven, ongoing studies and clinical trials continue to drive innovation, offering hope for safer and more effective treatments that improve patient outcomes and quality of life.
Raising awareness about these treatments can benefit patients. However, the appropriate treatment for advanced cancer depends on the type of cancer, its spread, and the patient’s overall health. It is essential to consult with an oncologist before pursuing any treatment.
(Dr. Kunjahari Medhi, Senior Director, Medical Oncology, Cancer Care, Medanta, Gurugram)
Cancer treatment has changed a lot in the past one decade. It is an era of personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine uses a person's genetic profiling of the tumor to individualize the treatment. Genetic profiling can be done by newer techniques called as next generation sequencing where multiple sequencing of tumor genes is done simultaneously. Based on the results of the genetic profiling of the tumor, various targeted therapies can be utilized to treat the patient with excellent outcomes.
Some of these treatment modalities are often administered in the form of oral drugs.
Another cutting-edge treatment modality is usage of checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancers (often called immunotherapy). Cancer cells evade the killing by our own immune cells by developing ways to hide from immune system. Immunotherapy drugs often reactivate our immune system and enable them to recognize cancer cells and kill them. It is changed the treatment paradigm of many cancers like lung, colorectal, kidney and lymphomas. Another new area of development has been success of antibody -drug conjugates which combines targeted therapy and delivers a focused delivery of chemotherapy at the cellular level.
CAR-T cell therapy is increasingly being recognised as the most advanced form of treatment. It also harnesses our own immune system to fight deadly cancers like relapsed lymphomas and multiple myelomas (a form of blood cancer). In this patient’s T-cell LS are harvested, genetically altered in lab to recognise tumor cells and multiplied and infused in the patients which kills certain subtypes of cancer.
There are a lot of exciting and newer developments happening in the area of oncology and with the help of modern medicine and scientific technologies, we hope to have a better treatment for cancer each passing day.
We are also utilizing something called as theranostics to treat cancer cells or tumors which are refractory to most traditional chemotherapy treatment. Here, radioligand is tagged to some pharmaceutical drugs which goes inside the human body and fights the cancer cells.
(Dr. Abhishek Raj, Senior Consultant & Head , Medical Oncology, Haematology & BMT, Sarvodaya Hospital)
