Tag: cancer treatment

How Herbal and Dietary Supplements Affect Oncologic Drugs

Reading time: 5 minutes Susan Egbert Statistics show that about 80 percent of the world’s population consume herbal/dietary supplements without specific recommendations to take them1, with some cancer patients using herbal/dietary supplements to alleviate their symptoms (e.g. pain, nausea, etc),2,3,4,5.  Generally, patients consider herbal/dietary supplements “safe” since they are “natural,” however, herb-drug interactions (HDI) (e.g.... Continue Reading →

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Bacterial Fortification for Cancer Therapeutics

Reading time: 3 minutes Bhavuk Garg Cancer treatment options have undergone multiple strategic shifts over the course of the last century starting with resection and moving to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemical inhibitors. Major challenges faced by many therapeutics are adverse toxic reactions inflicted on the patients and the development of therapeutic resistance due to high... Continue Reading →

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Targeting Transcription Factors in Cancers

Reading time: 4 minutes Bhavuk Garg Cancers are characterized by uncontrolled growth and failure of differentiation, whereby cells lose their physiological characteristics and acquire malignant phenotypes, also known as neoplastic properties. Examining the distinct properties of cancer cells and their underlying mechanisms are active areas of investigation. Broadly, these properties are summarized as hallmarks of... Continue Reading →

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Sex Differences in Cancer Therapy Safety

Reading time: 5 minutes Deanna MacNeil One goal in cancer therapy is to strike a balance between treatment efficacy and toxicity. While treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are meant to kill cancer cells, healthy tissues can be adversely affected in the process. Common side effects of systemic cancer treatment occur because treatments work... Continue Reading →

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AI and Oncology: An Unexpected but Useful Pairing

Reading time: 4 minutes Susan Egbert Did you know that researchers are trying to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) with cancer treatments? There are plenty of studies in oncology available that range from diagnostic to treatment that are peer-reviewed (experts looking at the articles before publishing). This is useful for AI as the more data that... Continue Reading →

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Your Genetics Could Affect Your Breast Cancer Treatment

Reading time: 4 minutes Keighley Reisenauer One of the “hot button” topics right now in the cancer therapeutics industry is precision medicine. This is a practice whereby a tumor’s genetics, immune landscape, and biomarkers are compiled and evaluated holistically in order to more accurately make treatment decisions. Breast cancer especially has benefited from the targeted... Continue Reading →

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Cannabis for Neuropathic Pain in Cancer

Reading time: 4 minutes Garima Khanna Marijuana, a popular plant cultivated throughout the globe has caught the eye of scientists to unravel the mysteries of it’s medicinal properties. The dried buds and leaves derived from Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica have shown potential to cater pain management. While the active cannabinoid properties in marijuana have... Continue Reading →

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Gene therapy vs Cancer: A promising yet challenging road

Reading time: 5 minutes Varshit Dusad Gene therapy has rapidly become one of the most promising new medical developments of our time. It has significant advantages over traditional therapies including the potential for one-time dosage instead of recurring treatment and higher specificity compared to traditional chemotherapy. Cancer is a genetic disease! It occurs when normal... Continue Reading →

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The Power of Timing in Immunotherapy

Reading time: 3 minutes Natasha Vinod In 2018, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the inventors of immune checkpoint blockade therapy, a “game-changing” technology that initiated a paradigm shift in cancer management. Checkpoint blockade therapy works by unleashing the immune surveillance against cancer by blocking the “natural brakes” (checkpoints) in the... Continue Reading →

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Words Matter

Reading time: 5 minutes Patty Spears When talking to, or about patients, words matter.  Words can hurt and make patients feel blame or guilt about having cancer.  It’s not usually done on purpose, so with increased awareness of what words mean to patients, everyone can be a bit more conscientious about what they say and... Continue Reading →

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Gold Nanoparticles – The future of cancer diagnosis and therapy?

Reading time: 5 minutes Garima Khanna Figure 1: Gold Nanoparticles  Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) possess exceptional characteristics, including high surface area to volume ratio, easy synthesis, surface chemistry, multi functionalization, stable nature and surface plasmon resonance.  Because of these unique properties, they are emerging as a powerful tool for early tumor diagnosis and chemotherapeutic drug delivery... Continue Reading →

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PROTACs: Building better therapies

Reading time: 5 minutes Tamara Vital How do you stop an accident from happening? You could try to prevent the conditions that contribute to accidents by establishing rules that encourage and reward caution and safe behavior. On the road, licensing laws, traffic lights, and speed limits set the rules of the road, and those who... Continue Reading →

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A Profile of Electric Fields in Cancer Therapeutics: Part 2- Irreversible Electroporation Therapy

Reading time: 4 minutes Michael Marand In my last article, A Profile of Electric Fields in Cancer Therapeutics, I discussed Optune System, an electric field therapy for glioblastoma that disrupts cancer cell division and results in extended patient survival. I also presented an overview of some other potential applications of electric fields in cancer therapeutics,... Continue Reading →

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Malignant Costs of Cancer Care

Reading time: 6 minutes Nisitha Sengottuvel So far, a lot of the articles we have been discussing here on Oncobites have been revolving around bench research regarding cancer biology and therapeutics. On the public health side of cancer care, there are a lot of emerging fields: one of which investigates the economic burden  of cancer... Continue Reading →

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