Although no one wants to hear the C-word, cancer, sometimes those of us who have cancer or have family or friends with the disease, will need to not only hear the word but they will need to actually talk about it. However, with the way technology rapidly advances every single day, we now have advanced cancer treatment options available for those who are suffering from this terrible disease. With these advanced cancer treatment options available, we now have people with cancer living longer and even being cured from it.
Keep reading to learn more about advanced cancer treatment options available in today’s day and age.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy has to do with your immune system. Your immune system finds bacteria and viruses and kills it. Although this may be the case, cancer cells have found a way to hide from the immune system. However, with the help of immunotherapy, your immune system can attack the cancer cells by keeping the cancer from hiding and by increasing your immune support, making it stronger to respond better to the cancer.
There are many different immunotherapy treatment options being created now. They include checkpoint inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, adoptive cell transfer, and immune system modulators. Keep reading to learn more about these advanced cancer treatment options.
Checkpoint Inhibitors
Checkpoints are friendly proteins. The immune system has T-cells that look for and kill foreign cells, which include cancer. However, the cancer cells usually use these checkpoints to hide from the T-cells. Although this may be the case, there are now immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors that will help the T-cells to fight the cancer cells and kill them off completely. The checkpoint inhibitors are able to treat many types of cancer and are good for the use of head and neck cancer treatment, as well as stomach cancer, bladder cancer, and more.
Monoclonal Antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are made in the lab to target and fight antigens and cancer cells. Antigens are proteins, just like monoclonal antibodies, that look for cancer cells to fight and kill them off. Some of the antibodies help your immune system find the cancer and some will kill it off completely.
Adoptive Cell Transfer
The adoptive cell transfer uses your immune system to treat cancer. Your doctor will take these cells from either your blood or the tumor itself and take it to a lab to change it to be able to better kill the cancer cells off.
Immune System Modulators
Immune system modulators have the ability to boost your immune system against cancer cells. One example of immune system modulators is a substance called cytokines. These substances control the immune systems cell growth. Examples of these cytokine substances include Interleukins and Interferons. The Interleukins help the immune system cells keep in communication with each other. The Interferons help activate cancer fighting cells.
Cancer Vaccines
Just like with vaccines that help find and fight viruses, cancer vaccines do the same thing, but with cancer. These vaccines are actually made the same way, made with your cancer cells. Your doctor will take the cancer cells out of your body to make the vaccines. Once they are ready, they will be injected back into your body. Once it is ready to go back into your body, it will help find the cancer cells and fight them off.
Will There Be A Cure?
One thing you need to know about cancer is that it isn’t just one disease but many different diseases including breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and many, many more. Although there isn’t a breast cancer cure or prostate cancer cure yet, scientists are making great improvements in their research. However, it does take time and a lot of research to find more advanced treatments, like non-invasive cancer treatment, and the final cure for all of the many different cancers there are.
Did you know, that proton therapy reduces the dose of radiation to gastrointestinal structures by about 59% compared to X-rays? Not only this, but a session for treatment only takes about 15 to 45 minutes, but the real time spent sending the protons to the tumor only takes a minute or two.
