Chemotherapy has saved the lives of countless cancer patients over the past several decades, but with it's debilitating side effects, from hair loss to nausea to damage to other healthy tissue, the better way that oncologists have been hoping for to effectively treat cancer may finally be in sight, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"Chemotherapy is like a blunt instrument," Dr. Steven Kalter of San Antonio's START Center for Cancer Care tells News Radio 1200 WOAI. "It doesn't just hit the cancer, it hits the healthy cells as well."
Now, thanks largely to the success of new products like Keytruda, which were tested at the START Center, Dr. Kalter dares to dream that so called 'targeted therapies' can replace chemotherapy, possibly within the coming decade.
He says targeted therapies like Keytruda, which last year led a a remission in Former President Jimmy Carter's advanced melanoma, actually enlist the boys' own immune system to help fight back against the cancer, which has been a goal of researchers for years.
"Targeted therapies are much more specific, for allowing the patient's body to tolerate the treatment, while the therapy goes directly at the cancer."
Dr. Kalter says research indicates that targeted therapies are also successful in treating the most common and the most deadly cancers, like breast cancer, skin, and colon cancer, and research is underway to try to develop targeted therapies that are successful with other types of cancer as well.
And, he says it should not be overlooked that , by avoiding side effects like hair loss, patients can maintain their dignity while undergoing treatment, something that Dr. Kalter says has an incalculable benefit in aiding with recovery.
"Many cancers become chronic illnesses, and with chronic illness, there is a desire on the part of the patient to maintain their quality of life as well as possible and as logn as possible," he said. "If we can keep the patients feling well and looking good, they will be better able to maintain their quality of life and they will be better able to help with the treatment."