Conquering Cancer in 21st Century

                              

Conquering Cancer in the 21st Century

Today the “Cancer”, word has been transformed to curable and controllable disease. Old concept and poor understanding has been replaced by newer concept and newer technology. Along with the better definition of mechanism in development of cancer care, is allowing our patients to conquer the cancer.

The childhood cancer is curable in almost 60%-80%  and patient’s survive to live a normal life. Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Hodgkins Disease, Wilms tumor, Germ cell tumour and Ewings Sarcoma have already achieved dramatic results with chemotherapy  alone. In, addition Bone Marrow Transplantation increases the cure rate.

Today the old chemotherapy is being replaced by Targeted therapy. Targeted therapy  achieves elimination of cancer cells without damaging normal cells. Modification of the immune mechanism has allowed us to achieve tumour cells killing. This newer delivery system is making it easy to target the tumor cells and spare the normal cells.

The most remarkable progress in the past 25 years has been in our knowledge of cancer biology. We are dramatically extending our understanding of what is required to turn a normal cell into a cancer cell. Cancer arises when a single cell changes so that it divides continuously, released from the controls that constrain the replication of normal cells. This transformation results from changes in the function and activity of genes. Of the approximately 100,000 genes found in the human genome, the altered activities of only a relatively small number of genes are responsible for transforming a normal, well-behaved cell into a cancer cell. Identifying these cancer genes defines the central scientific hunt in cancer biology, and opens an unprecedented window into the nature of cancer. Up until now, our detection tools have lacked the sensitivity and the specificity that we must demand if early detection is to be useful and successful. Our interventions, despite their success, have, by and large, been the result of guesswork. But now, we are at a point where we can transform our approach to cancer.

Forty years ago, it was not clear that cancer, other than that which could be removed surgically, could even theoretically be cured. The first proof that cancer can be treated and cured came with childhood cancers, where survival was once measured in weeks to months and where now the great majority of children with cancer are cured. Now, for some cancers, our ability to cure is relatively predictable. For others, our ability to cure is remarkably unpredictable.

The progress in the field of molecular biology and molecular technology is helping scientist to produce new drugs at rapid pace. The treatment is being replaced by the newer approaches to make the disease stable for long period of time. All these developments have allowed us to conquer cancer when the disease is detected at an early stage.

Conservative surgery and Organ preservation is becoming theme of surgical oncology. Radiation Oncology has acquired precision technology  to kill the tumor cells and spare the normal cells.

Finally, the progress in every field of cancer care is progressing at a rapid pace and we might be able to see the new revolution in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.