Advanced Lung Cancer Cures
Many advanced processes have increased the possibility of finding a cure for lung cancer. Some of these techniques simply utilize technology to enhance the effectiveness of procedures. Robotics and computers have aided scientists and physicians to better analyze and operate the various treatments for the deadly disease. Still more doctors are working on all new ideas and methods to help stem the tide of cancer-related deaths.
Features
Science is making incredible progress in its search for advanced lung cancer cures. Although there is no definitive cure-all for lung cancer, much of the advanced progress in treating lung cancer depends on the stage of the disease. When doctors catch lung cancer in its infancy, there are a variety of measures that can be taken to ensure that the patient will survive. Unfortunately, as the disease progresses, physicians are left with fewer options for treatment. Today, many scientists are experimenting with new technologies to treat this dreaded disease that kills an estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
Significance
When lung cancer is caught in its early to mid stages, the best practice possible is surgery. Over the period of time during the end of the 20th century, scientists made incredible steps forward in the process of surgically removing lung cancer tissues. While it remained a challenge, remission rates increased over the decades. Ultimately, people under 65 who were able to have surgery performed had a 60 to 70 percent remission rate, according to the "Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine." Increased precision with instruments and new technologies including robotic-assisted surgeries contributed to this success.
Chemotherapy and Radiation
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy have long been used as methods of treating lung cancer. By the early part of the 21st century, scientists had increased the efficiency of the these practices by creating new targeting devices that are computerized. These devices assist in accurately delivering the chemicals or radioactive elements into a person's body.
With chemotherapy, an increased understanding of cancer's interaction with certain elements on the genetic level have assisted in dosage techniques and increased reliability.
Radiation therapy is now used in conjunction with three-dimensional scanners that can pinpoint exact spots, to the millimeter, where the radiation needs to be administered. When using radioactive elements actually injected into the body, physicians can more carefully control dosage levels by monitoring the cancer's growth and remission in real time.
Potential
In later stages of cancer growth, doctors have used a method of treatment called targeted therapy. This uses a variety of antibodies that attack the cancer and try to drive it into remission. Biological understanding and increased genetic manipulation testing gave way to new concepts for making this antibody technology work more effectively. Scientists have been able to make more powerful antibodies that work at a higher efficiency rate than natural antibodies. These "super-antibodies" can attack cancer at a much more intense rate, oftentimes driving even advanced forms into partial remission.
Theories/Speculation
A few radically different experimental techniques are being investigated by scientists to help cure lung cancer. Photodynamic technology is a form of light therapy. The process involves feeding high-intensity red light directly into a person's lung. Scientists conducting the research, first approved by the FDA in 1998, have found that nearly all of the patients have benefited from the technique and a few have even seen the cancer cells completely disappear.
Scientists have also made headway on antisense technologies. Antisense technologies use genetic coding found in a person's messenger RNA. Messenger RNA is responsible for delivering the coding that makes cells produce proteins, some of which make cancer. By reversing the coding of the messenger RNA and delivering it into the cell, it latches onto the original coding and causes enzymes to break it down. This prevents a person's body from continuing to make the cancer cells.
Tags: lung cancer, lung cancer, Advanced Lung, Advanced Lung Cancer, antibodies that, attack cancer