Cancer Treatments and Immunotherapy

Surgical Intervention in Cancer Treatment

  • Definition: Surgery is the medical procedure used to remove tumors.

  • Conditions for Use:

    • Surgery is viable only if the tumor is accessible.

    • Certain anatomical sites may render surgery impractical or impossible.

  • Surgical Process:

    • The primary goal is to excise the tumor along with a margin of healthy tissue (the purple edges).

    • Risks: Surgery may damage surrounding healthy cells while removing the tumor.

Chemotherapy

  • Definition: Chemotherapy involves administering drugs that are toxic to rapidly dividing cells.

  • Mechanism of Action:

    • Specifically targets areas of cell division, commonly affecting locations where DNA replication occurs.

    • Because the drugs act on all actively dividing cells, they can affect healthy cells, particularly affecting:

    • Hair follicles (Causing hair loss)

    • Skin (Leading to dryness)

  • Limitations of Chemotherapy:

    • Ineffectiveness on certain cancer types that do not divide rapidly.

    • Potential for insufficient drug delivery to some cells; leading to missed cancer cells.

    • Indiscriminate targeting of both cancerous and healthy cells, resulting in significant side effects.

Radiation Therapy

  • Definition: Radiation therapy utilizes high-energy wavelengths to target specific areas of cancer cells.

  • Local vs Widespread Treatment:

    • Best used for localized cancers and ineffective for cancers that have metastasized to multiple regions.

  • Mechanism of Action:

    • Applies concentrated energy to burn and destroy targeted cells.

  • Limitations:

    • Significant damage to healthy cells in the vicinity of the therapy, making it a potentially brutal treatment option.

Combination of Therapies

  • Current Treatment Approaches:

    • Patients often undergo a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation in a multi-faceted treatment approach to enhance chances of recovery.

    • This mixture aims to tackle the remaining cancer cells that typical therapies might leave behind.

Immunotherapy

  • Overview:

    • Considered a novel therapy, immunotherapy reprograms the patient's immune cells to detect and combat cancer cells better.

  • Mechanism:

    • Considers cancer cells as aberrations from normal cells since they originate from the body’s own cells.

    • Harnesses the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells as it targets mutant cells.

  • **Process of Immunotherapy:

  1. Extraction: ** White blood cells are harvested from the patient.

  2. Genetic Engineering:** White blood cells are genetically modified to target specific cancer cells by incorporating genes designed to identify tumor antigens.

  3. Reintroduction:** Engineered cells are then reintroduced into the patient’s body to seek out cancerous cells effectively.

  • Advantages of Immunotherapy:

    • Uses the body’s own immune system, reducing the risk of rejection and enhancing specificity against cancer.

Challenges in Immunotherapy

  • Personalized treatment requires extensive genetic assessment of the tumor to create tailored immune responses.

  • Potential timelines for development due to necessary genetic sequencing and modifications.

Monoclonal Antibodies

  • Definition: Monoclonal antibodies are engineered antibodies designed to bind specifically to both cancer cells and immune cells (e.g., T-cells) to facilitate immune response.

  • Mechanism:

    • These antibodies bridge cancer cells and T-cells, circumventing cancer cells' deceptive signals that prevent immune response.

  • Benefits vs Drawbacks:

    • Monoclonal antibodies typically have fewer side effects than chemotherapy or radiation.

Immune Transplants

  • Process:

    • T-cells from the patient are isolated and genetically modified to enhance their cancer-targeting abilities.

    • Increased T-cell numbers allow for a greater response against cancer cells.

  • Benefits: Relies on the body’s own immune system, significantly reducing risks of rejection.

mRNA Vaccines in Cancer Therapy

  • Historical Context:

    • mRNA technology has existed since at least 2006, evolving from vaccine creation for infectious diseases to potential use in cancer therapy.

  • Mechanism:

    • Functions as a therapy by stimulating the patient’s immune system to recognize and fight off cancer cells specific to mutations presented in their tumors.

  • Advantages:

    • Offers the potential for highly tailored therapies at a rapid pace due to the ability to engineer vaccines based on specific genetic mutations