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Most cancer drugs fail in testing. This might be a big reason why

Now, a new study helps explain why the rate of failure is so high: In the case of targeted cancer therapies — a relatively new class of oncology drugs — the medicines may not actually hit the targets researchers intended.

Targeted therapies in cancer work differently from traditional treatments, like chemotherapy. They’re supposed to be aimed at the specific genes, proteins, or tissues cancer cells rely on to thrive. (Chemo, on the other hand, generally works on all cells that are rapidly dividing, regardless of whether they’re healthy or cancerous.)

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 Therapies for Cancer Bring Hope and Failure

The findings serve as another reminder of how devilishly complex cancer can be and how much more remains to be understood. They provide a sobering check on the enthusiasm that had been building about the targeted therapies, which act to block particular abnormalities that spur tumor growth.

Articles of Interest

A new way to organize cancer mutations could lead to better treatment matches for patients

Because targeted therapies bind directly to the cancerous protein, they spare most noncancerous cells from being harmed. This results in more specific cancer cell killing and less overall treatment toxicity. In contrast, chemotherapy attacks all actively dividing cells, which includes not just cancer but also hair follicles, the digestive tract and other parts of the body. To make targeted therapies more specific, scientists often study the physical or structural changes that mutations cause in proteins. They design drugs that preferentially bind to these particular changes to prevent the defective protein from causing uncontrolled growth.

Chemotherapy is brutal, but targeted drugs can reduce collateral damage

Targeted therapies are like heat-seeking missiles programmed to find and attack cancer but leave healthy cells alone.

How Targeted Therapies Are Used to Treat Cancer

Targeted drugs can block or turn off signals that make cancer cells grow, or can signal the cancer cells to destroy themselves. Targeted therapy is an important type of cancer treatment, and researchers will develop more targeted drugs as they learn more about specific changes in cancer cells.

Old-Style Chemo Is Still A Mainstay In The Age Of Targeted Cancer Therapy

Chemotherapy remains one of the mainstays of cancer treatment, but these harsh drugs are slowly being edged aside in medical research, as new treatments, like immunotherapy, grab the spotlight. Still, this is not the end of the road for chemotherapy. For one thing, doctors are coming to realize that some of these drugs are useful for more than just killing cancer cells.

Small molecules in targeted cancer therapy: advances, challenges, and future perspectives

Due to the advantages in efficacy and safety compared with traditional chemotherapy drugs, targeted therapeutic drugs have become mainstream cancer treatments. Since the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib was approved to enter the market by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001, an increasing number of small-molecule targeted drugs have been developed for the treatment of malignancies.

Targeted Therapies in Cancer: To Be or Not to Be, Selective

The field of targeted therapies in cancer is still relatively young and many questions remain unanswered. After initially moving away from chemotherapy to focus on more selective targeted therapies, the proverbial pendulum possibly swung too far as resistance to these agents is being recognized and grappled with.

Targeting Tumours

In rich countries half of cancers are now survivable. And better understanding means that more cures are coming...

The power of precision: targeted therapies could transform prognoses for gastrointestinal and lung cancer

The discovery of new targets and biomarkers has set the stage for us to expand precision oncology strategies into new cancers and, by doing so, potentially benefit more patients.

Why Aren’t Cancer Drugs Better? The Targets Might Be Wrong

Drugs can stop cancer cells if they attack the right proteins. But many of these targets were chosen with dated, imprecise technology, a new study suggests.