Permission is granted to print and distribute this excerpt for noncommercial use as long as the above source is included. The information in this article is meant to educate and should not be used as an alternative for professional medical care. Monoclonal antibodies Vaccines and immunotherapy Anti-angiogenesis factors Other new targeted therapies in clinical trials Since every cancer is composed of many different types of cells, each responding to different kinds of growth factors and other signals, the specifically targeted cancer treatments of the future are likely to be complex mixtures of chemicals, individually tailored to each individual tumor a far cry from today's less specific chemotherapies that have an impact on all rapidly dividing cells in the body. While these newer substances don't usually kill all cancer cells, they produce their therapeutic results with minimal side effects, potentially turning the cancer into a manageable, chronic illness that may be prevented from progressing. In cancerous tumors, genes that normally keep cell growth in check become damaged and no longer are able to function.
Oncogenes control cell growth, and are mutant versions of normal genes.
1 Tumor suppressor genes normally prevent the growth of malignancies, acting as a kind of brake on cell growth and progression. The first two types of genes have diverse functions in growth regulation, differentiation and programmed cell death. Using the adenovirus that causes the common cold, they inactivate the cold virus by deleting the gene causing its replication process, and slipping the p53 gene into its place. Early human testing has shown some ability to stop tumor growth and even cause some tumors to decrease in although there have been problems delivering the virus to all areas of tumor. Tests have begun on another such gene, known as E1A, in women with cancer of the breast or ovaries.