The Ultimate Secret Of Future Cancer Research
Getting cancer is one of the scariest things an individual may have and it will not only affect the individual diagnosed but also people around that individual also. Cancer is an incredibly deadly disease with a number of different types. It's challenging to find someone in the current world today who has not known a person who has or has had cancer. As a result of this, millions of dollars are spent every year on cancer research to know more concerning this deadly disease as well as to identify new effective treatments and cures for it.
The basis of such research is to identify the kinds of cancer, diagnose cancer in patients, and to find ways to avoid, treat and cure the disease. You will find various ways that cancer is researched. These ways include epidemiology and molecular bioscience, which is then used in clinical trials to compare and evaluate the different treatments.
The several types of treatments which are being researched are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, gene therapy, finding vaccines, targeted therapy and ways to boost the immune system. Anti-cancer vaccination research is done deals with exposing extracted tumors cells to UV light for a 24-hour period and then injecting them back into the organism. This approach has also been successful on rats.
Alternatively, researches of this deadly disease has had its share of issues and is still battling a lot of them. The main issue it faces is funding. Most of the funding comes from donations, so people and different organizations have to go out and obtain funding from the public. Stem cell studies have also stirred up a lot of controversy essentially halting any current testing in the field. Another controversial topic with cancer research is the clinical trials as well as the use of animals and human beings.
As mentioned earlier, funding is one of the most important parts of keeping such researches alive. There are plenty of organizations around that will be doing their part to raise money for research. Several of these organizations include; The American Cancer Society, Institute of Cancer Research, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, United Devices Cancer Research Project, Friends of Cancer Research and the Walker Cancer Research Institute. This is just a short number of several of the organizations, but be assured that there are plenty more available.
Many volunteers world-wide commit themselves to raising funds for cancer research and cancer charities. Many hundreds of thousands more work in the industry as carers, or researching, prescribing, diagnosing and manufacturing drugs. Huge companies spend fortunes on cancer research. After so long and numerous billions spent what exactly has cancer research revealed?
There have been regular breakthroughs in our comprehension of cancer, but little progress in its treatment. Modern research into cancer began in the 1940's and 50's when scientists isolated substances that killed cancer cells growing in a petri dish, or leukaemia cells in laboratory mice. Early successes in chemotherapy set the pace and received much media exposure, despite the fact that they only applied to 5% of cancer treatments at most.
Serving humanity by solving its major diseases has a celebrity status, there's a lot of kudos and an air of Hollywood involved in such things. Cancer research is high profile activity and every now and after that a scientific treatment methods are discovered that gains wide recognition, such as the HPV-16 trial, but it only applies itself to dealing with a small portion of cancers. Mass-media hype is involved in the problem of how we see cancer. Early discoveries setup an expectation that there was a cure-all treatment, a 'magic bullet' that might make its discoverer famous by curing cancer around the globe. The idea stems in part from aspirin, the original bullet that magically finds its way to the pain and diminishes it.
Within the 1950's and 60's huge and expensive research projects were set up to test every known substance to view if it effected cancer cells. You could remember the discovery of the Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharansus Roseus), which revealed alkaloids (vinblastine and vincristine) that will be still employed in chemotherapy today. Taxol, a remedy for ovarian and cancer of the breast originally came from the Pacific Yew tree. A treatment for testicular cancer scientist and small-cell lung cancer called 'Etoposide' was produced from the May apple. In 'Plants Used Against Cancer' by Jonathan Hartwell over 3,000 plants are identified from medical and folklore sources for treating cancer, about half of which have been shown to have some impact on cancer cells in a test tube.
When these plants are made into synthetic drugs, single chemicals are isolated and the rest of the plant is normally thrown away. The medicinally active molecules are extracted from the plant and modified until they are chemically unique. Then the compound is patented, given a brand name and tested.
Within the first phase it's going to generally be tested on animals, the other phase will decide dosage levels and in phase 3 it really is tested on people. Through the time it really is approved by the Federal Drugs Authority (in U.S.A.) or perhaps the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (M.H.R.A.) in Britain, the development costs for a brand new drug can reach five hundred million dollars, which eventually has to be recouped from the consumer.
As well as 'treatment directed' research for example finding chemicals that effect cancer cells, basic research continues apace, into differences between normal and cancerous cells. In the last thirty years this research has revealed much about our nature, but still no cure. Here are some current strands of scientific research into cancer.
Antibody-guided therapy: this really is the original 'magic bullet'. Cancer researchers use monoclonal antibodies to carry poisons directly to the cancer cells without harming others.
Chronobiology: much of what happens in our bodies is governed by cycles, from the female monthly cycle to the cycles of brainwaves. Human health is determined by interacting cycles geared to acts of perception, breathing, reproduction and renewal. Chronobiology analyses these cycles in relation to different times, such as day and night. Hormones, including stress and growth hormones, have their very own cycles. For example they could be at their highest activity in the morning and quieter in the evening. Cancer cells seem to no longer obey the same cycle rates as normal cells.
Anti-telomerase: one part of a cell, called the telomerase, governs the life cycle of a cell and how often times it may multiply. Some cancer cells escape this control as well as can raise the range of times they divide, becoming 'immortal'. Researchers hope to gain control over cancer cells by stopping the action of telomerase.
Anti-angiogenesis: secondary tumours (metastasis) can persuade the cells around them to grow new vessels to feed the tumours, supplying oxygen and nutrients for the growing cancer. This process is called angiogenesis and research here is finding ways to stop the signals to normal cells that start the process.
Anti-adhesion molecules: Cancer cells form into clumps, unlike those in a petri dish which form in to a flatter arrangement. When you will discover clumps of cells they appear to possess a quality that resists treatment. This strand of research looks at ways that may stop the cells clumping together, by dissolving the clumps for more efficient treatment.
