{"id":1492,"date":"2020-11-18T12:48:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youtumor.org\/id-like-to-know-more\/what-does-the-future-hold\/"},"modified":"2021-01-27T14:36:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T13:36:49","slug":"what-does-the-future-hold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/id-like-to-know-more\/what-does-the-future-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1953, the Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to Crick and Watson for their discovery of the DNA<\/span><\/strong> structure; hence that tumors develop because of a malfunction of DNA. In the following 30 years, about 40 chemotherapy drugs were developed on the basis of these mechanisms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1983, it was discovered that this DNA malfunction was due to the genes (oncogenes) responsible f<\/span><\/strong>or the continuous abnormal growth of tumor cells. In turn, it was seen that the products of these genes (the so-called growth factors) could be blocked; this paved the way to the development of many molecular targeted biological drugs over the following 30 years. <\/p>\n\n\n

In 2016, a third revolution took place in oncology;<\/strong><\/span> the molecular mechanisms of the immune response were discovered. This discovery earned Jim Allison the 2018 Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in the immunotherapy of cancer; widely used today, immunotherapy can achieve results that were unimaginable 5 years ago (THE NEW BIOLOGICAL THERAPIES<\/span><\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n

History reveals a general principle<\/span>: a new therapy can only be discovered after<\/span><\/strong> the mechanisms of the origin and development of the disease have been understood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present, more than 10 lines of research are carried out<\/span><\/strong> into the abnormal mechanisms of functioning of tumor cells; with a view to developing new drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can therefore be sure that things will improve considerably, even in the near future. This optimism is based on the speed of progress, which continues to accelerate. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, up to the third and latest “revolution”, progress was very slow<\/span><\/strong>; it took 10 years to improve the rate of cure by 2-4%, thanks to adjuvant therapies, or to gain 3-4 average months of life in patients with advanced cancer. In the last 5 years, however, the rate of progress has increased enormously. The logical conclusion is that we should make the best possible use of the currently available therapies in order to gain time; in the hope that new drugs will become available in 1-2 years. Only a few years ago, this prospect seemed fairly remote. <\/p>\n\n\n

One characteristic of cancer research today, which is closely connected with the development of new therapies, is the personalization of treatment.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This approach is based on molecular tests carried out on biopsy samples in order to identify the gene, or group of genes, responsible for the disease. As yet, however, very often the results of these tests cannot be put to practical use, because specific drugs to treat that particular disease have not yet been discovered. Once they have, the classification of tumors will change; the traditional classification based on the microscopic appearance of the tumor and the organ in which it arises, which has been in use for two centuries, will give way to a classification based on molecular tests, which will enable drug therapy to be “tailored” to the individual patient. This change has already been underway for some time. In the not-too-distant future (5-10 years), traditional chemotherapy may well become obsolete, but until that day comes, we cannot do without it in the majority of cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1953, the Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to Crick and Watson for their discovery of the DNA structure; hence that tumors develop because of a malfunction of DNA. In the following 30 years, about 40 chemotherapy drugs were developed on the basis of these mechanisms. 1983, it was discovered that this DNA malfunction was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":1450,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1492","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5440,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1492\/revisions\/5440"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}