What are the advancements in cancer treatment research?

Much of how we look at cancer treatment today has to do with advancements in molecular biology, a branch of science that looks deep within a cell's inner workings. For one thing, technology has become more sophisticated allowing scientists to map a cell's DNA. When DNA gets damaged, the recipes for chemical signals can get sabotaged and that can make cells misbehave, grow out of control and edge out healthy cells.

Honing in on the unique molecular aspects of cancer cells is at the heart of an amazing new concept in cancer treatment, "targeted therapy". And a growing number of cancer specialists believe that this approach is the future of cancer treatment.

We are seeing an explosion of new therapies in areas of science using genomics, proteomics and epigenetics. Genomics deals with the multiple genetic mutations within a tumor itself. Proteomics deals with the proteins that transfer signals from cell to cell. Epigenetics studies how a gene behaves that may change the appearance or behavior of cells - but it doesn't change the makeup of the gene itself. New technologies are also being used to develop new treatments such as Tumor Molecular Profiling (Caris Diagnostics) where multiple targets within a cancer can be found making treatment much more personalized. New immune therapies have been developed for melanoma and prostate cancer that use our own T-Cells to destroy cancer (Yervoy, Provenge). Eventually we will see this dreaded disease become a thing of the past & hopefully this will happen in the near future!