7. Arsenal of targeted breast cancer therapies
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 types of cancer have recently seen a new type of targeted treatment come into play for ovarian cancer patients. First-line cancer DNA-creating proteins often get dismantled by chemotherapy, but BRCA genes have a backup plan that repairs the DNA and is carried out by poly-ADP-ribose polymerases (PARPs).In a 2017 clinical trial, breast cancer patients who received a PARP inhibitor alone has seven months of progression-free-survival. Patients who went through regular chemotherapy only had four months.
In 2018, we can expect to see three CDK4/6 inhibitors on the market that interfere with a cell’s process to synthesize DNA to prepare it to divide.
Pauline Funchain from the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute considers the targeted treatment to be precision oncology because the process involves targeting certain molecular chains.
Previously, there hasn’t been drugs that could target molecular chains to stop cancer. Funchain suggests that genomics could play a role in targeted treatment.
“Let’s use genomics to subset these patients,” Funchain said.
S Srikrishna says
Very promising disruptions in Healthcare. Will be interested as an incubator to closely track the development of ideas of healthcare startups.