Cancer The Silent Disease!

As most of us are aware, October was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Fortunately for the women who have been diagnosed with this terrible disease, breast cancer has been on the mind of science all year long. In fact, some good news has recently come in the form of new, refined breast cancer treatments.

Though treatments for breast cancer patients have become more and more advanced over the last couple of years, a promising new method could have the potential to stop the cancer in its tracks without overdoing chemotherapy. This technique is called genetic profiling, and it is enabling doctors to build a more personalized treatment that is specifically adapted to match a patient’s particular breast cancer cell type, cancerous protein makeup, rate of growth and more.
Several tests are now available to doctors that aid in figuring out exactly what biological or genetic factors is the driving force behind various types of breast cancer. New therapies allow for focused attacks to target those specific factors, which in turn slows the growth of more cancerous cells and allows the chemotherapy to destroy the cancer quicker than it can regenerate.

Treatment Options

There are five different treatment options available to women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. These are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy; and it is common to use multiple treatments in conjunction with one another While the same treatments are still currently available, doctors are working to improve and hone each option in order to better target cancer cells.

Oncotype DX is one of the new treatments available. This particular therapy helps women who likely benefit from standard hormonal therapy because estrogen or other female hormones are compelling the cancerous cells to grow. Oncotype DX analyzes and inspects the genetic makeup of various breast cancer cells in order to determine if the cells will return even after hormone therapy. If this result shows that the chance of developing cancer again is indeed high, , it will prompt doctors to recommend additional hormone therapy as well as chemotherapy.

Another new treatment relies on a drug called trastuzumab to block the growth brought on by a growth gene in the cancer cell, slowing its regeneration and making it more susceptible to chemotherapy. Doctors have discovered that about one fourth of all breast cancer patients have cancer cells that include mutated growth genes which generate much more protein than normal, causing very fast, irrepressible growth in tumors and cancerous cells. Also, this drug battles the cancer’s capability to grow immune to chemotherapy since it will be too weak.

These special tests are a few of the increasing number of personalized treatments for breast cancer patients. Genetic profiling and more specific attacks on cancer cells could prevent many women with early breast cancer from having to undergo chemotherapy, which they may not be necessary at all if treatments are completed early enough. On the contrary, the same profiling will signify whether or not a patient requires stronger measures right away to battle the cancer, and if they will benefit from hormone therapy, surgery, or other treatments and procedures.