Cancer is one of the most dreary diseases, hearing whose name only gives goosebumps. Every year, it affects millions of people globally and many lose their lives to this life-taking disease. There are more than a hundred types of cancers and cancerous cells can grow at any part of the body from brain to blood to bone. These grow rapidly which puts the person at risk of death due to cancer. Only timely diagnosis and treatment can save the life of the patient. In severe cases, the best possible treatment is chemotherapy which provides effective results. Most people know about chemotherapy for cancer treatment however, there is another therapy that is considered to be more effective than this. It is targeted therapy
These cells also destroy the healthy cells around them and the patient gradually becomes weak and dies. Cancer treatment is possible with many modern techniques, but the reach of these treatments in India is not yet possible for every patient. Targeted therapy is a new and more permanent method of treatment in the field of cancer treatment. Let us tell you about targeted therapy.
What is targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is a new method of treating cancer. This includes a variety of therapies. Cancer cells start to increase rapidly in the patient's body. Eliminating these cells is the only cure for cancer that is a difficult task because whenever any attempt is made to destroy these cells present in the patient's body, healthy cells surrounding the unhealthy cells also get destroyed.
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However, targeted therapy is different from the old treatments in this case. In this therapy, the target of the same cell present in the patient's body is to be targeted and destroyed. However, this therapy is not as easy as you may think. To conduct this therapy, the doctor requires detailed information about the patient such as about his genes, about the proteins present in his body and about the nature of cancer, location of cancer, etc.
Targeted Therapy Vs. Chemotherapy
In standard chemotherapy both healthy and unhealthy cells present in the patient's body are destroyed whereas in the targeted therapy only the cancer cells are destroyed by blocking them, hence the patient's healthy cells survive in this therapy. Cancer cells are different from healthy cells. This therapy is designed so that cancer cells can be detected separately and destroyed in such a safe manner that healthy cells are not harmed.
Generally, targeted therapy can be used to treat patients whose cancer cells are constantly changing rapidly or whose cancer cells are not affected by other therapies.
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Are there any side-effects of targeted therapy?
There are no side-effects of targeted therapy as such but some patients may experience these unusual symptoms:
- Weakness
- Fatigue and lethargy
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- respiratory distress
- Skin scars
- Hair fall
- Blood clotting
- Hypertension
Any treatment has pros and cons. It all depends on the success rate to decide if it is better or not. In a nutshell, targeted therapy has a better success rate than chemotherapy.
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