The treatment of cancerous tumors can be tricky and dangerous. These cancer cells divide and grow excessively in those affected, with treatment type being dictated by various factors such as the type of tumor, its location, and if the patient can tolerate the procedure. This often means the use of chemo or radiation therapy, which possess a bevy of different side effects that may introduce alternative complications in addition to cancerous cell development. However, for the first time, a new type of tumor treatment method was utilized that could let doctors target the tumor with anticancer drugs that might otherwise damage healthy tissue.
Currently, when it comes to anti-cancer or tumor treatment, there exist a number of different methods that can be used. It will first be required to assess what type of cancer a person has and whether it can effectively be treated with commonly used methods. Most of these methods also kill or slow down the growth of nearby healthy cells, leading to side effects such as fatigue, hair loss, and nausea and vomiting. The following are some of the main cancer treatment therapies currently being utilized:
“We have developed a new approach to delivering therapeutics into tumors using the white blood cells of our body. This will be applied to deliver many anticancer drugs, such as doxorubicin, and we hope that it could increase the efficacy of cancer therapies compared to other delivery systems,” said Zhenjia Wang, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences who led the study.
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Sources:https://news.wsu.edu/2017/05/15/nanotherapeutics-target-tumor-at-wsu/
http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/tumor/overview.html
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types