Treatment Info

Cancer can be treated by four different modalities along with new treatments and drugs:

1. Surgery
2. Chemotherapy
3. Radiation Therapy
4. Immunotherapy
5. On Matrix Metalloproteinases (NEW)

Click here for more information on drugs used in cancer treatment

Surgery

Surgery is the most curative therapy. If a cancer can be removed before it has spread to another site, it can be cured with surgery. Since it is often difficult to tell whether or not the cancer has spread before the surgery is done, surgery is often supported with chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a treatment of cancer whereby individual cancer cells are killed by drugs. It is a curative form of treatment for some cancers, it controls some cancers indefinitely, and it keeps other cancers under control for a period of time. The side effects of chemotherapy, including nausea and vomiting, are now minimal so that patients can live active lives while taking the drugs. Most chemotherapy is now administered while the patient is living at home; hospitalization is seldom required. With a little education, most patients can be taught to manage their own chemotherapy and consequently their own cancers.

Read more about Chemotherapy Treatments

Radiation

Radiation therapy is the administration of high-energy particles aimed at the cancer from a linear accelerator. This is a very sophisticated therapy and is highly effective against a large number of cancers. It treats the localized cancer, but it too needs to be supported by chemotherapy when it is suspected that the cancer has spread to some other part of the body.

Immunotherapy

This new treatment aims at stimulating the body's own immune system to reject cancer cells. The ideal treatment is to vaccinate the patient with his or her own cancer cells and then stimulate the patient's immune system with drugs, which are usually synthesized immune activators. This is still not being done efficiently and until we can improve our methods, cancer immunology will remain a poor sister to the other treatment modalities.

On Matrix Metalloproteinases

These are a group of biological enzymes that will become more and more important as time goes on. They are enzymes that are produced by most malignant tumors that help them grow locally and metastasize. As tumors continue to grow, they continue to mutate and with each new mutation in the DNA, they is likely to be a new protein produced and this new protein may have a new biological function that may help the tumor grow and proliferate more efficiently.

The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)allow the cancer cells to invade through the surrounding membranes or through the vessels walls and from there the cancer cells can travel anywhere. The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) also allow the cancer cells to accommodate to their new location, when they metastasize, and help them build a new life in their new location.

These enzymes are called:

            Gelatinase A and B.
            Collagenase.1,2, and 3.
            Stromelycin, 1,2, and 3.
            Elastase 1 to 5.
            Matrilysin.
            Metallulase 1 to 12.

Each of these enzymes performs specific actions, either to break down basement membranes around the tumor or in blood vessels or to promote the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). But in the same milieu, inhibitors to these enzymes exist and these are called Tissue Inhibitors of Matrix Metalloportienases (TIMPs). These are the substances that give us hope. If the promoting enzymes can be inhibited and negated, then the cancer’s progress can be controlled.

Researchers are now trying to find and isolate these inhibitors and to use them as treatments for cancer. If a cancer’s growth can be inhibited because it cannot escape from its primary location or if the metastases cannot grow in their new location, then the cancer can be managed and controlled. Already some of these agents have been isolated and are being tested right now. We await these results with great anticipation.

If you wish to know more about these agents, call my office for an appointment and I will be happy to discuss, clarify and manage your particular medical problem.