Over the years, many people have been successfully treated with chemotherapy thanks to ongoing research into the use of these drugs. Yet despite the best treatments, some cancers are very difficult to control, and some will come back.
Several exciting new uses of chemotherapy and other agents hold even more promise for curing or controlling cancer. New drugs, new combinations of drugs, and new delivery techniques will improve medicine’s ability to cure or control cancer and improve the quality of life for people with cancer. There are many expected advances in coming years:
- New classes of chemotherapy medicines and combinations of medicines are being developed.
- New ways to give the drugs are being studied, such as using smaller amounts over longer periods of time or giving them continuously with special pumps.
- Some newer medicines, called targeted therapies, are designed to attack a particular target on cancer cells. These drugs may have fewer side effects than standard chemotherapy drugs and may be used along with them. Several are now being studied, and some are already being used. For instance, lapatinib (Tykerb®) can be used along with other drugs to treat women whose breast cancer is positive for HER2/neu.
- Other approaches to targeting drugs more specifically at the cancer cells — such as attaching drugs to monoclonal antibodies — may make them work better and cause fewer side effects. Monoclonal antibodies, which are special types of proteins made in the lab, can be designed to guide chemotherapy drugs directly to the cancer cells. A number of these are being studied and some are available through clinical trials. A couple of monoclonal antibodies that deliver radiation to the cancer cells have been approved.
- Monoclonal antibodies (without attached chemotherapy) can also be used as immunotherapy drugs, to strengthen the body’s immune response against cancer cells. For instance, rituximab (Rituxan®) and alemtuzumab (Campath®) are directed at certain lymphoma cells, and are used to treat some types of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and leukemias. A number of these types of drugs have been approved, and more are being studied. For more on these drugs, see our document called Immunotherapy.
- Liposomal therapy uses chemotherapy drugs that have been packaged inside liposomes (synthetic fat globules). The liposome helps the drug penetrate the cancer cells more selectively and decreases possible side effects (such as hair loss and nausea and vomiting). Examples of liposomal medicines already being used are Doxil® (the encapsulated form of doxorubicin) and DaunoXome® (the encapsulated form of daunorubicin).
- Chemoprotective agents are being developed to protect against specific side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs. For example, dexrazoxane (Zinecard®) helps prevent heart damage, amifostine (Ethyol®) helps protect the kidneys, and mesna protects the bladder.
- Some new agents may be given along with chemotherapy to help overcome drug resistance. Cancer cells often become resistant to chemotherapy by developing the ability to pump the drugs out of the cells. These new agents inactivate the pumps, which allows the chemotherapy to remain in the cancer cells longer, which might make it more effective.
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