Cancer is a deadly disease that claims millions of lives every year. And because cancer is such a dangerous and complicated disease, doctors and researchers spend a great deal of time and energy trying to develop new and innovative ways of treating the various types of cancer. This means that treatments and methodologies are always evolving and changing as new research helps to develop better and more effective ways of combating cancer.
Learn more about some of the latest cancer treatment research being done today. Then, you can be sure you stay on the cutting edge of cancer treatments and try to get into clinical trials if you so desire.
Nanoparticles for Cancer Treatment Delivery
One of the latest trends to be studied in the field of cancer research is the potential use of nanoparticles to help deliver cancer treatments to the body. Nanoparticles are between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter, or in other words, extremely small. These tiny particles are small enough to infiltrate cancer cells and tumors directly, making them a highly effective delivery system for cancer-fighting drugs.
Clinical trials will soon start to test the efficacy of these nanoparticle delivery systems. The idea is to not only ensure that the cancer drugs get to the areas needing to be treated, but also can reduce negative side effects brought on by systemic drug treatments. Two of the drugs being tested with the nanoparticle technology are docetaxel and fingolimod,
Docetaxel is a chemotherapy drug while fingolimod is actually a drug originally designed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Fingolimod has the ability to make tumors more receptive or sensitive to chemotherapy drugs, making the medications more effective. However, fingolimod can have negative effects on cancer treatment because it causes immune system suppression. The nanoparticles can help change that, only delivering the medication to cancerous cells without affecting the rest of the body.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Plan Treatment Programs
Another innovation being considered in the future treatment of cancer is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the development of treatment plans. Specifically, treatment plans involving radiation therapy. The development of radiation therapy plans is an important step, as doctors want to target tumors and cancer cells without doing excessive damage to healthy cells throughout the body.
Normally, this process can take a doctor several days to develop. And while it may seem that a matter of days is not a big deal, cancer that is aggressive can spread and grow quite a bit in a few short days. Using AI to develop these radiation therapy plans can speed up the process immensely. Automating this process can create more precise treatment plans as well as improve timeframes for getting treatment started.
These automation programs are still being tested, though initial tests look quite promising. In just twenty minutes, the automated system was able to develop comparable treatment programs to the standard doctor-led method which takes days. If this continues to be the trend and the models continue to function properly, this would free up doctors to provide better care to their patients by spending the time they would have spent planning on other types of treatment and support.
With this information about the latest cancer treatment research and development, you can be sure that you get the most cutting-edge treatment for your cancer. For more information, check out a website like http://swoncology.net/.
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