Treatment
I believe in treating cancer with anything that works. Show me that something works, and I’ll use it. Period - David Chan MD
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The Nobel Prize is a reminder of the outrageous cost of curing cancer
For the first time ever, we’re living in a moment when many of our most promising medical advances are far out of reach for the vast majority of people who could benefit from them. And nowhere is that truer than for cancer immunotherapy, the fast-moving field of cancer treatment research that was honored on Monday with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Immunotherapies are a cause for great hope in treating many types of cancer, including melanoma, lymphoma, and lung, kidney, and bladder cancers. They stimulate the immune system to help the body attack cancer from within. And unlike chemotherapy or radiation, which kill off healthy cells, immunotherapies are much more targeted,…
Resources
The Most Promising Cancer Therapy in Decades Is About to Get Better
Tumors contain the seeds of their own destruction. We just need to work out how to activate them.
Is a Revolution in Cancer Treatment Within Reach?
Every time a new cancer treatment approach emerges, oncologists and overexcited journalists have a habit of declaring that a cure for cancer is imminent. What’s happening now is different. Rather than a single breakthrough therapy or discovery, a variety of scientific advances are exerting downward pressure on cancer mortality in new ways and at the same time. As a result, the landscape for many cancer patients has changed tremendously in just the past five years.
The Million-Dollar Cancer Treatment: Who Will Pay?
So far, few patients have received the new drugs, as commercial health plans and Medicare wrestle with how to cover the treatment.
A Clever New Strategy for Treating Cancer, Thanks to Darwin
Like the diamondback moth, cancer cells develop resistance to the powerful chemicals deployed to destroy them. Even if cancer therapies kill most of the cells they target, a small subset can survive, largely thanks to genetic changes that render them resistant.
Advanced Cancer Treatments Far From Big-Name Hospitals
Precision medicine should become more widely available, and fewer patients will need to travel far for care.
Developing New Cancer Treatments Is Vitally Important, But So Is Looking After Cancer Survivors
“The system for caring for cancer survivors in the U.S. we have currently is not sustainable. We have more survivors and they are living longer, which is, of course, wonderful, but healthcare systems are not currently set up to care for a large and increasing number of survivors,” said Leach.
Doctors Suggest Less Chemo, Surgery for Some Cancer Treatments
Researchers explore leaner approaches aimed at sparing patients tough side effects—and costs.
Fast, Precise Cancer Care Is Coming to a Hospital Near You
OF ALL THE cancers in the world, lung cancer is the deadliest. This year, the National Cancer Institute estimates it will kill 150,000 people, despite a growing number of more targeted therapies. But that could all soon change. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first next-generation-sequencing-based test, from Thermo Fisher Scientific, that can tell you how different drugs will work for you, based on the genetic makeup of your tumor. And it only takes four days to get back results.
For Children With Cancer, Hope for New Treatments
A new law requiring pharmaceuticals companies to test cancer drugs on children as well as adults is raising hopes of more therapies.
How Close Are We to a Lifelong Cure for Cancer?
Carl June, a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy, explains the state of the art in cancer treatment and what’s coming next.
How to Fight Cancer (When Cancer Fights Back)
Understanding how the disease evolves is the key to stopping it.
New Cancer Treatments Lie Hidden Under Mountains of Paperwork
The holdup, he thought, would be finding patients. Instead, the real impediment turned out to be gathering their medical records. In the United States, there is no single format used by all providers, and hospitals have no incentive to make it easy to transfer records from one place to another. The medical records mess is hobbling research and impeding attempts to improve patient care.
Scientists harness light therapy to target and kill cancer cells in world first
Exclusive: experts believe new form of photoimmunotherapy may become fifth major cancer treatment
The Search for Cancer Treatment Beyond Mutant-Hunting
The point is that precision medicine is not just precision mutant-hunting. It may be decidedly low-tech and may apply to conditions other than cancer.
The Trap of Treatment Dogma
Researchers recently announced that many women diagnosed with breast cancer might be able to skip chemo. A group of doctors argued the same, half a century ago—and were ridiculed.
Waiting to Treat the Cancer
I understand that, particularly in this age of breathtakingly expensive cancer treatment, there is a need for checks and balances on our treatment recommendations and their potential benefit. That public health perspective seemed awfully shortsighted, though, when I had to face my patient and his dad each week as his leukemia threatened to come raging back.
Which Cancers are Most Survivable and Why?
Cancer is not a death sentence; there is a great deal of difference between a prostate and a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and even differences between subtypes of cancer within any particular organ. Recent statistics on cancer survival rates are instructive...
Do Doctors Ever Treat Cancer With Natural Regimens?
I believe in treating cancer with anything that works. Show me that something works, and I’ll use it. Period. But don’t give me a story of how someone’s aunt’s best friend was told that she had six months to live and was cured by taking a natural supplement found through the Internet and is still alive 10 years later—and then ask me to give the OK to try it.
This Physicist Invented a Cancer-Killing Laser That Could One Day Replace Chemo
“When I was taking care of my aunt, I was like, There must be something better than just dying like this."
Cancer Therapy: An Evolved Approach
Tumours are subject to the same rules of natural selection as any other living thing. Clinicians are now putting that knowledge to use.
Five Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatments
Memorial Sloan Kettering scientists and doctors firmly believe we're on the cusp of a brighter era in cancer care and research. Although the history of attempts to understand and control cancer is littered with disappointments, many significant advances in research and treatment have been made in recent years. Despite the challenges, we now have more reasons than ever to be hopeful. These are five of them.
Sharing data could help African governments reduce the cost of cancer treatment
Cancer is becoming more common across Africa, but the continent’s doctors and policy makers are barely equipped to provide adequate treatment. New cancer cases are expected to double by 2030 to around 1.3 million, according to an American Cancer Society (ACS) study (PDF). If national cancer treatment strategies aren’t fixed, only 10% of patients will receive treatment, including basic pain medication.
Stem Cell Therapy - Ready for Prime Time?
Adult stem cells hold enormous potential in the treatment of disease, but more importantly they do not carry the burden of controversy that has surrounded embryonic stem cells for well over two decades.
The startup fighting cancer with AI
Boston pharma startup Berg uses an AI to analyse terabytes of cancer data. It's a radical approach, but it may just work.
And then there were five
THERE are, broadly speaking, four ways to fight cancer. You can cut a tumour out, with surgery. Or you can try one of three different ways of killing it. Radiotherapy targets tumours with radiation. Chemotherapy uses chemicals that poison all rapidly dividing cells, cancerous ones included. “Targeted therapies”, as their name suggests, recognise particular features specific to cancer cells. Singly and in combination, these four types of treatment have contributed to a steady increase in the survival rates for most kinds of cancer. Now they may be joined by a fifth.
Cancer Treatments May Need To Be Tailored To Each Tumor
Cancers are diverse, and that makes them extremely difficult to treat. What worked stunningly for one person might fail utterly for another. What worked for a tumor in the brain probably won't work on a cancer of the liver. Scientists are trying to outwit tumors by coming up with tailored treatments like the immunotherapy drug used to successfully treat former President Jimmy Carter.
New types of therapy mean cancer is going to become ever more survivable
Science is making cancer treatments more precise in many different ways.
Why we need to redefine the “cure” for cancer
The war on cancer has created more treatments, but could do more on prevention.
The Nobel Prize is a reminder of the outrageous cost of curing cancer
Cancer’s most promising therapies come with $100,000-plus price tags.
Cancer Treatment Navigator
Being burdened with cancer is challenging without the resources needed to make informed decisions. Let us bring you to the forefront of clinical science and facilitate faster access to advanced treatment options that are beyond the standard of care.
A Closer Look at Stem Cell Treatments
We have all heard about the extraordinary promise that stem cell research holds for the treatment of human diseases. Clinics all over the world claim to offer stem cell treatments for a wide variety of conditions. But are all of these treatments likely to be safe and effective? The ISSCR provides information to help you evaluate these claims.
Springboard Beyond Cancer
Springboard Beyond Cancer was developed by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society (link is external). This web tool reflects their shared mission of getting health information, skills, and support to the people whose lives are affected by cancer.
Be The Match
For people with life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma or other diseases, a cure exists. Be The Match® connects patients with their donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America
CTCA provides cancer treatment using new, innovative and traditional cancer treatments: some of which involve the use of stem cells. Many patients choose to come to CTCA because they believe in our integrative approach to cancer treatment.
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