For decades, cancer treatment has been a blunt force trauma approach, with treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy. While such treatments often yield good results, they can be brutal and have devastating effects on patients, attacking both healthy and cancerous cells alike.
By analyzing a patient's tumor on a molecular level, and factoring in a patient's genetics and environment, doctors can identify the specific mutations causing cancerous growth. This allows them to target therapies that exploit these weaknesses, maximizing effectiveness and minimizing side effects.
As Diana Azzam, an environmental health sciences professor at Florida International University, notes in The Conversation, 'even though two people with the same cancer might get the same medicine, they can have very different outcomes.'
#cancer-statistics #precision-medicine #treatment-challenges #personalized-medicine #clinical-trials
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