Cancer : The Greatest Challenges Of The Modern Oncology

Significance: understanding the mechanism of drug resistance in cancer leads to developing more potent drugs.

A key factor in the development of tumors is the ability of cancerous cells to evade recognition from the bodies’ natural defense against cancer, the immune system. Immunotherapies effectively block the pathways that shield cancerous cells from being identified, and thus the promote the bodies own anti-tumor response. However, one challenge to immunotherapy has been its combination with chemotherapy, the mainstay of cancer treatment. While chemotherapy is extremely effective in stopping the rapid division of cancerous cells, its toxic immunosuppressive side-effect make it difficult to combine with

It has targeted cells that work to kill and defend any pathogen or impurity that enters one’s body. In the case of cancers, a person’s cells grow abnormally forming a tumor. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lose the ability to undergo apoptosis, cell death. Thus, one’s body harvests a tumor that most likely has a chance to spread and become deadly. Luckily, the biotech industry concocted innovative research that called for a new method of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is designed to program one’s immune system to destroy and fight off the cancer. Originally, it has been mainly used for allergies. Dosages of medication or vaccinations are given to a patient to ensure that the immune system will not overreact to certain types of foreign substances. The therapy requires a drug that delivers an anticancer immune cell, specifically designed to attach on to the specific antigen that the tumor contains. According to scientist, immunotherapy gives patients “long term protection with reduced side effects against the cancer” (McGinley). The purpose of this treatment is to strengthen the immune system and specifically targets cancerous cells. Due to scientific research and the use of biotechnological methods, immunotherapy is able to prevent the threat of killing cells necessary to one’s body. Providing patients with a treatment that does not take a toll on their bodies, nor threaten to kill healthy cells is one relief the person

Prof. Jonathan Bramson holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Experimental Medicine from McGill University. He has published 96 research manuscripts, 11 review articles, and 2 book chapters. He has also submitted 3 patent applications in the area of immunotherapy. His research is focused on the mechanisms by which the adaptive immune system recognizes and responds to tumours and a specific interest is the development of immunological strategies to fight cancer. He is currently a tenured professor at the department of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University, since 2009 director of the McMaster Immunology Research Centre (MIRC) and holder of the John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular Medicine as well as the Tier I Canada Research

Immunotherapy has caught the interest of researchers as these treatments use the own body immune system to to detect and destroy cancerous cells. A cancer vaccine has been the most appealing as it could be made of whole pancreatic cancer cells, so that the body can detect these foreign cells and build up antibodies, so when these cells do show up later the body can recognize and attack the production of cancerous cells. Fortunately, antibodies have been helpful in various cancers, but it has not worked with treating pancreatic cancers.

When designing a cancer treatment program, it’s crucial it include the immune system, because the whole body is vulnerable to infection and chronic inflammation when it’s dealing with the effects of a growing population of cancer cells.

A silent killer of today is cancer; there are many different forms of cancer. For each different style of cancer, there are many unanswered questions about cancer, even if most of them are currently unknown to us. Cancer is a debilitating and often fatal disease, but thanks to current medical research, knowing the causes, recognizing the symptoms, and planning the treatments have become much easier.

In the bloodstream, a very small number of tumor cells survive to reach the target organ, indicating that metastasis formation must be regarded as a very ineffective event [7,8]. Millions of carcinoma cells enter into the circulatory system, but the majority of them die during transportation, and only 1-5% of viable cells are successful in formation of secondary deposits in distinct sites [7-9]. It is known that many cells of the immune system, such as NK cells, macrophages and lymphocytes, could contribute to the elimination of tumor cells in the vascular

As the world continues to suffer from these devastating diseases, researchers continue to find alternative therapeutic ways of addressing cancer treatment. It is on this premise that various immunotherapeutic alternatives have emerged and currently garnering the greatest level of attention and already raising hope throughout the world in addressing the treatment of NSCLC. However, this can no longer be viewed as a discovery but a wave in the medicine world that began in the 20th century. Various researchers have found the importance of the role of immune systems in fighting the growth of tumor caused by cancer cells. A study by Huncharek (2000) stated that specific immune boosters are capable of eliminating preclinical cancers. In contrast, Jermal et al. (2011) found that immunotherapy is an effective approach for the treatment of tumors that have already turned into solid. Similarly, the researchers highlighted that immunotherapy can be an effective approach to the treatment of melanoma as well as renal cell cancers (Lasalvia-Prisco, 2008). However, Jemal et al. (2011) noted that immunotherapy cannot achieve much in cancer treatment due to limitation brought about by the emission of immunosuppressive cytokines and subsequent loss of antigen expressions. Recent development in research studies on the immunotherapy approach to cancer treatment continues to elicit mixed reactions among researchers of medicinal ecology (Jadad et al., 1996). However, recent development in

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide as it can develop in almost any organ or tissue. Significant advances in understanding the cellular basis of cancer and the underlying biological mechanisms of tumour has been vastly improved in the recent years (Jiang et al. 1994). Cancer is a genetic disease which requires a series of mutation during mitosis to develop, its characteristics can be associated with their ability to grow and divide abnormal cells uncontrollable while in the mean time invade and cause nearby blood vessels to serve its need. Even though many people are affected by cancer today, the abilities which cancer cells have make it hard to find a single effective treatment for cancer. The focus of research now lies

Could our own immune system perform a poorer job of eliminating cancerous tumors compared to a foreign virus? Even though we can theoretically give our immune system the necessary capabilities to specifically target cancer cells, practically we cannot modify the immune system to carry out this function efficiently. Cancer immunotherapy is a treatment where the body’s immune system is used to fight cancer. To achieve this, the cells of the immune system are made to recognize the cancer cells and attack them, thus eliminating the tumor. However, unfortunately our body’s immune system is not perfect and can let some cancer cells slip through its fingers. Therefore, we need a more efficient

Over the past couple of weeks we have been going over the cell cycle. What it does, how it works, and basically everything about it. The definition of the cell cycle is events that take place in a cell as the cell grows. Now I am going to explain what cancer is and why it is difficult to treat.

Many researchers are currently studying immunotherapy by vaccination to elicit an effective anti-tumor immune response to delay or eliminate tumor progression. The aim of this therapy is to elicit CD8+ T cells that recognize the peptide-MHC class 1 molecule on the tumor antigens and cause tumor cell death by increase secretion of granzyme and perforin. For an ideal anti-tumor immune response atleast 4 components of the immune system need to be present: appropriate mature dendritic cells; activation of CD4 T cells, elimination of T regulatory cells; and inhibition of the immunosuppressive immune

Immunotherapy is a whole new way of tackling cancer (para7). It is a combination therapy that helps the body’s own defenses fight cancer cells (para 1). Immunotherapy tricks the body’s defenses into fighting cancer. There is evidence that it can halt sometimes terminal cancer in its tracks (para3). Trials involving a combination of immunotherapy drugs for skin cancer were impressive (para4). Half the patients in the trial that were considered terminal ill responded to the combined drugs in fifth of the patients, and it shrank the tumors in 58% of patients (para5). Combining treatments also increase the likelihood of potentially severe side effects (para 11). The hope is that the therapy may be able to teach the body’s immune system to recognize

Have you ever heard of the cancer treatment Immunotherapy? Well Immunotherapy is treatment that uses certain parts of a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, which can be done in a few different ways. One way is stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter to attack cancer cells. Second, giving your immune system components , such as man-made immune system proteins. The immune system is a collection of organs, special cells, and substances that help protect you from infections and some other diseases. Immune cells and the substances they make travel through your body to protect it from germs that cause infections. There are 4 main types of cancer immunotherapy. Those 4 types are Monoclonal antibodies ( man-made