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Asked by term442gem on 7 Dec 2021.
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Craig Anderson answered on 12 Nov 2021:
There are, but cancer is a catch-all term encompassing a disease that can occur in lots of different ways across the body. An important part of understanding how to cure cancer is to define the important characteristics of how the disease starts, develops and responds to treatment. For example, one of my colleagues researches breast cancer and has found that a type of drug, called a PARP inhibitor, is most effective in a particular group of patients that she can identify with a clever computer programme. It’s sort of like looking at someones cards when playing snap, which makes it much easier to make the decisions that help you win!
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Stephenie Purvis answered on 12 Nov 2021:
In my experience, cancer research is more looking at why the cancer has developed and what specifically is causing it. If we can figure that out then we can develop specific treatments, like PARP inhibitors, that target those areas and stop the cancer growing.
It is also important to look at developing early screening programmes like the current breast and bowel cancer programmes offered. These help detect cancers earlier so we can treat them early which is much better for the patient.
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Frank Schubert answered on 12 Nov 2021:
The simple answer is yes. Several routes are being explored such as new drugs, antibodies, and cellular approaches. As others pointed out, cancer is not just one disease. There is huge variation in the where it forms, from which cells, and which genes are involved. New therapies often target very specific cancers.
A major research focus is to gain a better understanding of specific cancers. This involves genetics. In my lab we are using genetic experiments to test the contribution of particular genetic variants to the transformation of brain cells into cancer cells. -
Jeffrey O'Callaghan answered on 12 Nov 2021:
There are loads!
Luckily, there are some website to track current ongoing studies, such as clinicaltrials.gov
Here is an example of all of the ongoing clinical trials interventions for all types of cancers
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Cancer&recrs=d&age_v=&gndr=&type=Intr&rslt=&Search=ApplyWhen a potential therapy has shown to work in the lab it must be tested in humans which is a clinical trial. To get to this stage they must be shown to be relatively safe and they usually have companies backing them. So clinical trials are a good indication of what new drugs may realistically make it to the market or not. The above link has nearly 6000 ongoing trials in humans!
Aside from this there are so many more drugs and treatments being researched in labs, they are just not at the clinical trial stage yet! -
Henry Jenkins answered on 12 Nov 2021:
Yes! All the time, researchers are trialling different compounds, chemicals and drugs on cancer cells and in controlled clinical trials on people when it is considered safe enough for humans!
But there are also more radical genetic treatments that are being developed, or in this case have been developed, such as CAR-T cell therapy! Scientists are able to re-programme a patients T-cells (immune cells that kill cancers and bacteria) to target a patients cancer directly!
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