Methods of Cancer Treatment, Summary

Methods of Cancer Treatment - Summary

So far, we have discussed a number of cancer treatment methods, conventional and novel methods.  Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Although significant progresses have been made in some of them in recent years, it seems like there is no perfect way to treat cancer at the present time.  Why? 

Remember that most cancer cells are mutated and transformed from normal/stem cells through problematic mutations; the problematic mutations could be only one out of many thousands of mutations.  Thus cancer cells are just like brothers/sisters of normal cells and similar in many ways.  This is what makes it so difficult to treat cancer.  In addition, any treatment that contravenes the growth of cancer cells might also affect normal cells, thus resulting in side effects.  Fortunately, modern technologies in surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have made significant progresses in reducing the side effects (i.e., injuries of normal cells).  

If there is a perfect way and it’s easy to deal with, we wouldn’t have many thousands of scientists in the world working day and night on finding better answers.  The way the world is created by nature, we are going to have a difficult time to find a perfect way to treat cancer.  However, researchers are making progress inch by inch; newer and better methods have been developed in the last 50 years or so and there will be more and more improvements discovered in the coming years to fight against cancer.

In my opinion, stem cell related therapies have the best chance to be among the best methods for treating cancer.  Among them, two strategies are most appealing to me; they are (1) potential treatment by exosomes, and (2) reversing cancer cells back to normal cells.  However, a lot of technical hurdles must be overcome before either can become practical.  In any case, I believe this is an exciting period of time for the research and development of cancer treatment. We are also putting some of our efforts in this general area and hope to make some contributions. 

Although there may not be a perfect therapy for cancer treatment at the present time, there are a few good ways to reduce the risk of getting cancer and/or to slow down cancer growth.  Other than the methods described previously, there are other aspects to consider in order to reduce the chances of getting cancer.  We will talk about these later. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.