Exciting developments in the field of pathology have enabled us to better identify the biology of a tumor for a specific patient. This allows us to individualize or personalize the treatment regimen for our patients, for many different types of cancer.
Gene mapping and DNA sequencing in cancer genomics allows our oncologists to specially design a unique treatment plan for your specific cancer. By using targeted therapies that target specific genes and proteins that are involved in the growth and survival of cancer cells, we have seen significant and sustainable improvements in our patients’ treatment results at Onco Life Centre. Targeted therapy can affect the tissue environment that helps a cancer grow and survive or it can target cells related to cancer growth, like blood vessel cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved targeted therapies for many types of cancers.
The most common types of targeted therapies are monoclonal antibodies or small-molecule drugs.
Monoclonal antibodies. Drugs called monoclonal antibodies block a specific target on the outside of cancer cells. The target might also be in the area around this cancer. Monoclonal antibodies can help chemotherapy and radiation therapy reach cancer cells better.
Small-molecule drugs. Drugs called small-molecule drugs can block the process that helps cancer cells multiply, survive and spread. Angiogenesis inhibitors are an example of this type of targeted therapy. Angiogenesis is the process for making new blood vessels. Cancer tissue needs blood vessels for nutrient delivery, which is required for cancer growth and spread. Angiogenesis inhibitors starve the tumor by keeping new blood vessels from forming into the cancer tissue.
Other types of targeted therapy include other immunotherapies, and apoptosis inducers (therapies that start cell death, or apoptosis).
