In 1971 President Richard Nixon declared a war on cancer and predicted a cure in the near future. As of today there is no complete cure but many advances have been made due to the completion of the human genome sequence. Because of this advancement, scientists have learned cancer forms from a group of genes created by a certain combination of mutations. Since cancer isn't produced by a single consistent defect, but a number of on and off switch combinations in our 33,000 genes, researchers have never succeeded in finding a complete cure all solution. Finally our understanding of this disease is making progress. Survival rates are slowly climbing with the advancements of technologies. The prediction is, in ten years, suffering and death due to cancer will be eliminated.
Here are the current treatments for cancer:.
Chemotherapy:.
A current treatment for cancer involves chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs are used to damage cancer cells more then healthy cells. The reason chemotherapy is more likely to kill cancer cells is because a cell is only vulnerable to chemotherapy when it is dividing. Normally, cancer cells divide at an extremely fast rate. Tumor growth is often fast and out of control. However, the chemotherapy drugs also affect healthy body tissue such as skin, hair, and the digestive system. These cells are constantly renewing themselves. Luckily, healthy tissue can repair itself much faster then cancerous tissue.
Radiotherepy:.
This is the use of radiation to treat disease. The radiation is similar to that used for an x-ray. Radiotherepy destroys the cancer cells in the treated area. Although normal cells are also affected by radiation, they are quickly repaired as mentioned before.
Here are some of the current "tools" for fighting cancer and developing new treatments:.
DNA Micro Arrays:.
Using precise robotics, scientists are able to single out DNA sample onto slides. By doing this scientists are able to observe the genes and reactions to each other.