Live with the cancer?

Combined therapies of targeted drugs will turn cancer from 'villain' into chronic non-dangerous disease .

While pregnant with her second child, Claire Young, 22, of Adelade (Australia) was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her left breast. To avoid the risk of poisoning for a 22-week-old fetus, doctors chose to substitute chemotherapy with a surgical removal of the tumor. When the baby was 38 weeks old, Young was born and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Combined therapy

That was the time in 2004 when Young's malignant tumor was developing, but doctors still believed that this option would radically eradicate the disease. And for safety, the patient is prescribed epirubicin and cyclophosphamide, a standard chemotherapy chemotherapy for breast cancer, as well as a combination of physiotherapy.

In particular, Young was also admitted to tamoxifen, a type of medicine that helps control female sex hormones, which is a source of energy for growing tumors, because her cancer cells give positive results to the next object. receive estrogen. By 2007, doctors discovered Young's disease had signs of drug resistance, so she was given new chemotherapy: docetaxel and gemcitabbine. After only a few weeks, the tumor shrank and saw but developed again.

To investigate the causes of this relapse, experts at the University of Newcastle (UK) examined Young's genetic and detection tests positive for the mutant gene BRCA-2, a form of inherited cancer. And she was allowed to participate in Dr. Ruth Plummer's experiment about a new drug called 'PARP inhibitor' which was only effective for patients with BRCA-2 mutation genes.

Molecular mechanism

The 'PARP inhibitor' that Young's patients have applied has helped control the enzyme that causes protein deficiencies associated with DNA repair mechanisms. Although this inherited genetic mutation accounts for only about 10% of breast cancer cases, it is the basis for research efforts to prevent this disease and other tumors, mainly to help doctors. Doctors identify mutations that arise in individual cells making them malignant. In April 2008, the International Association of Cancer Genetics (ICGC), an organization of leading cancer experts, was established aimed at DNA sequences from 25,000 tumors separately to identify mutations. Genetic variation involves 50 most common cancers. Experts have listed and grouped many types of related cancer mutations, including individual changes in genetic code, gene destruction, integration and duplication as well as rearrangement. chromosome . contributes to the creation of different genes in tumor cells and the addition of chemicals to DNA such as adding or removing methyl groups may also affect the activity of individual genes. .

Mechanism to attack cancer cells

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of cancer has led scientists to new therapies. From the mid-1990s, geneticists discovered BRCA-1 and BRCA-2, two genes responsible for at least half of all inherited breast cancer cases. These two genes encode proteins that are involved in DNA repair mechanisms, so when they are defective, cells that tend to accumulate metabolic products are cancer-causing mutations. Only recently have the experts identified the differences in this mysterious mechanism, helping explain why the traditional treatment is often ineffective for different tumor positions on the body. .

According to Professor Rameen Beroukhim of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, Massachusetts - USA), when identifying the development mechanism of cancer tumors from molecular abnormalities, the treatment will be different. Both traditional chemical and physical therapies can all be effective thanks to a special toxin that strongly influences the tumor cell division mechanism. However, these treatments not only damage the rapidly growing tumor cells, but also inhibit and even harm other normal cells in the body. To overcome this drawback, experts are targeting a new treatment model with a combination of targeted pharmaceuticals that attack cancer cells only by identifying specific biochemical changes while will ignore normal cells .

Targeted pharmaceuticals

This approach has convinced many oncologists and they are slowly acquiring miracles, not only can the cancer turn from a deadly disease to a non-dangerous chronic disease.'In the near future, most cancer patients are able to survive - Beroukhim is determined - But first, the patient must be biopsied several times to examine details at the molecular level to classify the mechanism promoting tumor development, then will be assigned target drugs with specific treatment regimens based on individual mutations of each type of tumor . '.

In theory, this therapy will work better than the current treatment, especially with fewer side effects and many new target therapies will be exploited in the future to turn the cancer from ' The villain brings short-term death sentence 'to chronic diseases that can be controlled for long periods.