Cancer remains one of the largest challenges of modern medicine, yet diagnosis and the fight against cancer are being transformed by treatment modalities, research, and technology. Precision medicine and immunotherapy are supported by AI-assisted diagnostic imaging and tailored treatment regimens, all of which have vast potential for future cancer treatment. In this present blog post, we present to you the new developments that will revolutionize oncology in the coming years.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have fought cancer but at horrific side effects. Precision medicine or targeted/personalized medicine is changing the science of cancer management by individualizing the treatment according to the patient’s own gene signature.
Genetic sequencing technology allows physicians to identify a particular mutation in a patient’s cancer cells. The drug for that specific application kills the cancer cells but won’t kill normal cells. Trastuzumab (breast cancer HER2-positive marker) and imatinib (chronic myeloid leukemia) are just two, but there are many more that come on very quickly.
The more scientists learn, the less toxic, the more effective cures medicine will yield, eradicating sloppy techniques long a part of cancer treatment.
- Immunotherapy: Spurring the Body’s Defenses
Immunotherapy, one of the most interesting new cancer treatments, targets neither the cancer nor chemical toxins but mobilizes the patient’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab and pembrolizumab block proteins so immune cells can’t access a tumor. Another encouraging one, CAR-T cell therapy takes a patient’s own T cells and genetically modifies them to be able to target cancer and destroy it more efficiently. That has been dramatically successful in some blood cancers.
In the coming years, researchers will battle more sophisticated forms of cancer and minimize its side effects smaller with immunotherapy so that it will be the most sought-after treatment for the disease.
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- Artificial Intelligence and Early Detection
Early detection raises the likelihood of curing cancer very effectively. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the diagnosis of cancer by providing an early and precise diagnosis.
Imaging AI technology can detect cancer at stage one by scanning it in tests. Google DeepMind and IBM Watson are already incorporated in hospitals to detect lung, breast, and skin cancer and had already achieved the skill of human-trained radiologists.
Along with imaging, AI is also helping pathologists to interpret tissue samples and provide an estimation of a patient’s chances of responding to a specific treatment regimen. As technology continues to improve, AI applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment planning will be the key drivers.
- Liquid Biopsies: The Non-Invasive Revolution
Liquid biopsies are substituting all those invasive methods of extracting cancer cells in conventional biopsies. Liquid biopsies identify pieces of DNA associated with cancer in the patient’s blood and thus the detection is less invasive, quicker, and easier.
Liquid biopsies would enable physicians to track the growth of cancer in real time, diagnose relapse earlier, and treat more effectively. Liquid biopsies will become a routine analysis in the next few years that will provide recommendations for the diagnosis of cancer even before disease onset.
- Nanotechnology in Cancer Treatment
Nanotechnology provides novel drug delivery to cancer cells with reduced tissue damage. Some nanoparticles of a few nanometers in size can deliver chemotherapeutic drugs more selectively and reduce their side effects.
Scientists are even creating nanoscale sensors that can potentially diagnose cancer at the molecular level, and thus early diagnosis may be achieved. Nanotechnology will be the gateway that will make the possibility of developing even more potent and non-toxic cancer treatment in a span of two years’ time.
- CRISPR and Gene Editing: Rewriting Cancer’s Code
The CRISPR gene-editing system can potentially revolutionize cancer treatment by directly editing the genetic code of the cancer cells. Scientists are looking to CRISPR for its capability to remove the genes that cause cancer, repair damaged DNA, or stimulate the immune system to better identify the tumors.
CRISPR therapy, in clinical trials, can deliver cancer drugs with high specificity and fewer side effects. When the issue of ethics and safety is addressed at the earliest possible time, gene editing becomes a commodity for cancer treatment.
- Cancer Vaccines: Prevention and Cure of the Disease
Vaccines are not just for infectious disease—vaccines are being developed to prevent and treat cancer. HPV vaccine already prevents cervical cancer, and vaccines will soon be in the pipeline for other cancers.
Immunotherapies that teach the immune system to kill tumors that are already present are also very promising. BioNTech and Moderna, among others, are using mRNA technology (used in COVID-19 vaccines) to develop cancer vaccines tailored to a person’s tumor.
Until experimental treatments arrive, prevention is still a powerful weapon against cancer. Genetic screening has advanced to the stage where the highest-risk individuals are now detectable in the expectation of curing them early. Healthy lifestyle promotion, exercise, and smoking cessation public health initiatives continue to reduce cancer incidence.
By prevention and newer therapies, the future of cancer treatment will be more invasive than before.
The Road Ahead
Cancer therapy is shining bright. Precision medicine, immunotherapy, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and gene editing are revolutionizing cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. With every speeding pace of innovation, cancer will be treated with more potent, personalized, and pain-free treatments.
Albeit problems yet to be solved—such as the outrageous price tag of new drugs and further study—rate of progress is advancing at record pace. The hope is finally that someday cancer will be an eradicable or manageable disease, holding out the promise of a healthy future for millions of people on this planet.