Cancer is a disease that has existed since the dawn of humanity. The first steps in modern cancer treatment were taken after World War II. The successful use of drugs in cancer treatment began in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
The treatment of cancer with drugs is called chemotherapy, and these drugs are called chemotherapy drugs. The most important reason for using drug therapy in cancer treatment is that cancer is generally a systemic disease (i.e., a disease affecting many organs of the body). Of the three treatment methods (surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) that play a role in cancer treatment, drug therapy, or chemotherapy, is the only treatment method that can affect the entire body systemically. The common characteristic of the drugs used in chemotherapy is that they damage cells with a high rate of division\/growth. Since cancerous cells are generally cells with a very high growth rate, they are damaged by these drugs. These drugs also affect the body's normal cells that have a high division rate. As a result, common side effects of chemotherapy drugs can occur: nausea, decreased blood counts, hair loss, etc. One of the most important differences between cancerous cells and normal cells is that normal cells can repair themselves, while cancerous cells cannot fully repair themselves. While normal cells can recover from the effects of chemotherapy within two to three weeks, cancerous cells cannot and can die after repeated chemotherapy treatments.<\/p>\n
While chemotherapy alone can be curative in some cancers (such as lymph node cancers, breast and ovarian cancers, etc.), in other cases the cancerous cells develop resistance to the chemotherapy drug, and the disease reappears either immediately or after a while. There are two important reasons for this:<\/p>\n
In recent years, there have been significant advances in chemotherapy drugs and applications. New, more effective drugs are being introduced into treatment (e.g., nab-paclitaxel, liposomal drugs), the side effects of chemotherapy are being reduced thanks to new supportive medications (e.g., serotonin antagonists for nausea; G-CSF for patients with low blood counts \u2013 low leukocytes), new treatments against drug resistance are being investigated (e.g., MDR modulators, drugs that increase DNA damage), and new drugs are being developed that target only cancerous cells and do not harm normal cells (antivascular drugs, humanized antibody therapies that block growth factors).<\/p>\n
To treat cancer more effectively, in addition to chemotherapy, we need drugs that target the cause or mechanism of cancer. In the coming years, these types of treatments will be the most effective forms of cancer therapy. While some of these treatments are still in the experimental phase, others are already being used on humans, and we will have the opportunity to use many of them routinely within the next five years.<\/p>\n
The main new treatments are as follows:<\/p>\n
In conclusion, we hope to use new, effective, and low-side-effect treatments for cancer in the coming years. These treatments will most likely not be a cure for cancer on their own. Cancer is not a relatively simple event like a microbial disease. For a definitive cure, we will need to use all these treatments, including chemotherapy, in a specific order or in combination. Perhaps instead of completely eradicating cancer, we will learn to control it and live with it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cancer is a disease that has existed since the beginning of humanity. The first steps in modern cancer treatment were taken after the Second World War. The successful use of drugs in cancer treatment began in the 1970s. Treating cancer with drugs is called chemotherapy, and these drugs are called chemotherapy drugs. The most important reason for using drug therapy in cancer treatment is that cancer is generally a systemic disease (meaning it affects many parts of the body).<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[518],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kanser-teshis-ve-tedavisi"],"yoast_head":"\n