Introduction
Cancer has been a subject of intense medical innovation and scientific research for decades. Cancer treatments have come a long way, with innovations against this relentless and deadly disease. The advent of personalized chemotherapy has emerged as the light of hope in the fight against cancer, offering customized treatments that consider an individual's unique genetic formula and the specific characteristics of their cancer. This article delves into the fascinating world of personalized chemotherapy, its principles, methods, successes, and challenges.
What Is Chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is a treatment modality that uses drugs to target and kill rapidly dividing cancer cells. These drugs disrupt various aspects of cell division and proliferation, mainly aiming to kill the cancer cells while potentially reducing the damage to healthy cells. However, one of the main drawbacks of traditional chemotherapy is its non-specific nature, which can cause collateral damage to normal, healthy tissues and mostly result in a host of debilitating side effects such as hair loss, nausea, and weakened immune function. While conventional chemotherapy has undoubtedly been effective in treating many types of cancer, its limitations have prompted researchers and healthcare professionals to seek more specific and targeted approaches. This has given birth to personalized chemotherapy.
What Is Personalized Chemotherapy?
Personalized chemotherapy, also known as targeted or precision chemotherapy, is a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment that customizes treatment strategies to an individual patient's unique genetic characteristics. This approach accepts that no two cancers are identical, even in the same tissue or organs. Factors such as genetic mutations (changes in the DNA sequence of an organism), gene expression patterns, and the environment around a tumor can influence how a cancer behaves and responds to a specific treatment. The main concept of personalized chemotherapy is that a tailored treatment plan is designed for the patient so that the cancer treatment is likely more effective and less toxic than the traditional one-size-fits-all approach. This personalized treatment involves a detailed understanding of the cancer's genetics and biology, the patient's genotype, overall health, and treatment history.
How Does Personalized Chemotherapy Work Against Cancer?
Most types of personalized chemotherapy help treat cancer by interfering with specific proteins that aid in tumors growing and spreading throughout the body. Whereas traditional chemotherapy often destroys all cells that grow and divide quickly. The following are the different mechanisms of personalized chemotherapy in treating cancer.
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The Immune System Destroys Cancer Cells - The main reason for the survival of cancer cells in the body is because they can hide from the immune system. Certain personalized therapies can mark cancer cells so the body's immune system can easily identify and destroy them. Another method is personalized chemotherapy, which boosts the immune system to work better against cancer.
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Stop Making New Blood Vessels - To grow beyond a certain size, tumors require new blood vessels in an angiogenesis process. Signals are sent from the tumor that starts angiogenesis. Few personalized chemotherapy interferes with the signals sent from the tumor and prevents a blood supply from forming. Without a proper blood supply, tumors cannot continue to grow and will stay small. Or, if a tumor already has a blood supply, personalized chemotherapy can destroy the blood vessels, which causes the tumor to shrink.
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Interrupting With Growth and Division Signal - They should receive strong signals to produce new cells from healthy cells. These signals bind to proteins on the cell's surface, guiding the cells to divide. This process helps produce new cells according to the body's requirements. In cancer cells, there is a difference in the protein in the cell surface that guides cell division, even if there is no requirement. So, cell production is uncontrollable, even with or without signals. Some personalized chemotherapy interferes with these proteins, preventing cell division. This process helps slow down uncontrolled cancer growth.
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Delivering Toxins to Cancer Cells -Monoclonal antibodies (immune system proteins created in the laboratory) are combined with cell-killing substances such as chemotherapy drugs, toxins, or radiation. When these monoclonal antibodies attach to targets on the cancer cell surface, the cells consume the cell-killing substances, leading to cell death. Cells that do not have the target will not be hurt or destroyed.
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Stopping Hormones for Cancer Cell Growth - Some cancers, like breast and prostate, require certain growth hormones. Certain personalized chemotherapy can stop these hormones' production and action and stop cancer growth.
What Is the Process of Personalized Chemotherapy?
Personalized chemotherapy involves multiple steps to provide the most suitable treatment plan for a cancer patient:
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Diagnosis and Tissue Sampling - The process mainly starts with cancer diagnosis through biopsy, imaging, or other diagnostic procedures. A tissue sample, mostly from the tumor, is collected for further analysis.
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Biomarker Analysis - The collected tissue sample is then sent to biomarker analysis, which can include gene expression profiling, DNA sequencing (a technique for determining the sequence of nucleotides in a DNA molecule), and protein analysis. This analysis provides important information about the molecular and genetic characteristics of cancer.
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Selection of the Accurate Treatment - Using the biomarker analysis results the healthcare professionals identify specific molecular features or genetic mutations that can be targeted with personalized chemotherapy. Based on this information, a personalized treatment plan is curated, which may include immunotherapies, targeted therapies, or a combination of treatments.
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Treatment Monitoring - Regular assessments and monitoring are conducted throughout the treatment to evaluate the patient's response. Certain changes in the treatment plan can be made based on how the cancer is responding and if there are any resistance mechanisms noted.
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Adaptive Therapy - In some cases, adaptive therapy is incorporated in personalized chemotherapy, where treatment strategies are adjusted in real-time based on the evolving cancer characteristics. The main aim of this approach is to stay one step ahead of the cancer's ability to develop resistance to treatment.
Conclusion
Personalized chemotherapy offers a customized and precise approach to combat cancer. Using the power of genomics, biomarkers, and targeted therapies, researchers can provide more effective treatments with minimal side effects. However, targeted therapy is not the best treatment for every kind of cancer. Many challenges remain. So ongoing research and innovation is promising to further refine and expand the reach of personalized chemotherapy.
