Cancer Research
A Layman's Guide To Cancer Research
Cancer research means intellectual application of scientific methods to learn more about the unsolved mysteries of cancer with a goal to fight against it. Underlying aim of these research studies is to get a deeper insight into cause and progression of cancer and to develop strategies to prevent and treat it.
These researches receive funds from various sources like government bodies, federal agencies, voluntary organizations, private institutions, and industry. Grants are needed not only to meet the expenses but also as a source of merit for the researcher. In US, National cancer Institute under the aegis of National Institute of health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the principal funding agency and center for coordinating cancer research programs.
Major areas of cancer research are: Cause, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention.
Cause - Researches undertaken to study prevalence of cancer in the population to gain deeper insight into cancer causing agents are known as epidemiological studies. Researches from various disciplines (e.g. Genetics, Nutrition, Environmental Sciences) investigate potential targets for cancer therapy. Data obtained from clinical observations and demographic studies forms basic research. Oncogenomics is the specialized branch of genomics that studies genes involved in cancer. Studies have revealed possible role of some hereditary factors as cancer related. These hereditary factors may cause cancer-causing mutations that either activate oncogenes or suppresses tumor suppressor genes, thereby causing cancer. Oncogenomics applies high throughput technologies to study underlying genetic mechanism with an aim not only to gain understanding of cancer initiation and progression but with a bigger aim to attempt personalized cancer treatment.
Diagnosis - Researches involved in developing tools for early diagnosis of various types of cancers work toward defining predictors of cancer development at the earliest possible stage. Recently researches at National Cancer Institute reported presence of white blood cells in patients' blood more than six years prior to the diagnosis of a chronic form of lymphocytic leukemia.
Treatment - Areas of cancer treatment research includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy, strengthening immune system, bone marrow transplant, targeted therapy and proton therapy. Clinical trials involve validating therapeutic intervention approaches by testing their efficacy and safety on live subjects.
Prevention - Researches aimed at developing vaccines against cancer fall in this category. Topics under prevention research include Oncophage and Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Oncophage is revolutionary personalized vaccine that is made from individual patients' tumor cells. This activates the patients' immune system to identify and attack any cells bearing the specific cancer fingerprint. The HPV vaccine prevents infections from the two strains of HPV (16 and 18) that cause cervical cancer in over 70% of women.
Knowledge generated through cancer researches is disseminated in the scientific community through publications and scholarly meetings.