2023-06-02 15:36:13
Today is an important day for current cancer research: The world’s largest starts in the USA Cancer Congress, The American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO 2023). And we will award the German Cancer Prize 2023 on Friday evening.
German Cancer Prize 2023 for current cancer research
The German Cancer Prize, donated by the German Cancer Society and the German Cancer Foundation, goes to five scientists in 2023 who are working on the current turning point in cancer therapy with their research. The prize for experimental research goes to studies on the genetic development of cancer cells. The investigation of genetic variants within a tumor in neuroblastoma (a type of cancer that is difficult to cure) is recognized as translational research. And the prize for clinical research honors two studies on a new therapy for breast cancer that did not require chemotherapy if the tumor showed certain genetic characteristics.
Will chemotherapy for cancer soon be a thing of the past?
Without chemotherapy – this is a great desire in the treatment of cancer. Because unlike cancer operations or radiation, “chemo” targets the entire body of the patient and has massive side effects. It will probably never work without her, I guess Professor Andreas Mackensen, hematologist and oncologist at the University Hospital Erlangen and President of Bavarian Center for Cancer Research (BZKF) in an interview with Bavarian Radio. Chemotherapy is an important pillar in cancer therapy. But there is hope that new therapies can be used to treat cancer more efficiently – deadly for the cancer cells, but gentler on the cancer patient.
How is cancer treated? Classic forms of therapy
According to Mackensen, one of the most important components of cancer therapy is Operation. Not every tumor can be surgically removed and surgery is not the best treatment for every cancer. However, where a young primary tumor has been discovered, there is a good chance, depending on the type of cancer, of completely removing the malignant tumor.
There will also be one afterwards radiotherapy applied: Adjacent tissue is bombarded with particle radiation or ionizing radiation and completely destroyed in the process. This also affects healthy tissue, but in a limited area: like surgical treatment, radiation is a local therapy that is limited to the diseased body regions. Radiation therapy is otherwise not used that often today.
Systemic cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma
However, there are some types of cancer such as lymph gland cancer or leukemia (blood cancer) that cannot simply be irradiated or excised because they are not located at a specific point in the body, but are systemic diseases: the cancer cells are distributed in the body, for example through the Lymphatic system with its various nodes.
Chemotherapy as systemic cancer therapy
Such cancer needs a systemic treatment such as that chemotherapythat affects the entire body. Drugs are designed to deliver chemical substances to the tumor cells that destroy them. In order not to damage all other cells in the body as well, chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells – a key feature of cancer cells. But also from the cells of the hair, which is where the hair loss from chemotherapy comes from. And other body cells are also attacked by the “chemo”, which is why it is accompanied by such strong side effects. Many of these can now be contained by other drugs that accompany the chemo.
The clever cancer cells
Cancer researcher Mackensen emphasizes that none of the therapies are one hundred percent suitable for all types of tumors or stages of cancer. Sometimes an operative, sometimes a chemical therapy is more promising. In addition, cancer cells quickly change and hide. That is exactly what is specific about cancer: tumor cells try to evade destruction and “learn” quickly.
Cancer research: being smarter than cancer
But cancer research is also constantly learning and has long been looking at the innermost part of cancer: its genes. The genetic development of tumor cells is researched, as well as their specific characteristics and weak points. The fight against cancer is about to change.
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