Future Of Cancer Treatment & Medicine
The future of cancer treatment is still in the dark as there is no sure-shot drug, therapy or medicine that could kill the disease. However, there are medicines and hope to increase lifespan and improve the quality of life of cancer patients.
Researchers are working very hard for years in order to understand the overall genetic changes causing cancer. The genetic factor or gene therapy has proven to be a promising therapy for improving cancer. There are times when gene mutations could cause cancers that are inherited. But that isn’t the case always. In most of the cases of cancer, the diseases begin by mutations occurring during the lifetime of a person. Researchers have been studying the pattern of these changes with the hope that in the coming days they will successfully develop tests to help doctors to customize cancer treatment depending on the gene of a particular patient.
In 2003, a big step was taken towards the completion of this goal when government as well as private researchers mapped the entire DNA sequence, which is known as the human genome. The initiative and undertaking was fruitful, named The Human Genome Project, which took over 10 years.
As gene therapy became more and more popular, much improved projects, such as the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was developed. Researchers were proposing to map the cancer cells genes in order to learn how those cancerous genes were changing to cause cancer. Such projects went on successfully and the result of research has helped in further progress of cancer medicine. Recently, some researchers have published findings for improving our understanding of gene changes involving acute myeloid leukemia or AML. Others reported some findings for the common endometrial cancer, which suggests that there are some tumors that share similar characteristics with some types of ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
Genetic testing is definitely considered to be the future of cancer treatment. The primary aim of these projects that were developed was to create more useful methods of genetic tests and help doctors to device what type of treatments are likely to work efficiently to improve each patient.
Increased understanding of the genetic tests and basis of this disease has literally helped people to realize the importance of taking good care of health and body. Obesity, alcohol, and smoking can actually cause extensive DNA damage or even exploit the genetic weaknesses of a person. Therefore, it is very important to live a healthy and stressfree life, and it is equally important to make sure that you are eating healthy and balanced meals. Personalized medicine is another addition to the range of cancer treatments available to people these days.
Genomics is a determinant factor that will dictate how these decisions with respect to your lifestyle can cause or protect and prevent diseases. It will also ensure that better lives can be designed and the risks of diseases can be rescued. In addition, it will also prepare the body in a better way so that it can fight against several diseases and ailments.