Questions and Answers about Cancer Treatment and Personalized Diagnostics

"Everyone is a writer" program aims to promote the sharing of knowledge and learning together. We encourage scientists, researchers, and students to answer the questions with their expertise and help  others learn from the answers. There are some questions and answers about the cancer treatment and personalized diagnostics from this campaign.

Q1: Technologies have advanced the study of cancer treatment for decades. Please share and elaborate at least one approach of cancer treatment, including the principles, advantages and disadvantages.

A: Lily Honsman: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is one of the approaches of cancer treatment, which uses T cells engineered with CARs for cancer therapy. CAR- T cells are T cells that have been genetically engineered to produce an artificial T-cell receptor for use in immunotherapy. The CAR-T cells are able to bind to an antigen on the cancer cells and kill them. The initial clinical remission rates after CAR-T cell therapy in all patients are as high as 90%. Little data about the long-term effects of CAR-T cell therapy; adverse effects including cytokine release syndrome and neurological toxicity. Learn More

Kamini V: VMAT is a new Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) treatment technique that combines the fully digital linear accelerator, 3D volumetric imaging, and advanced treatment planning expertise. This powerful trio delivers focussed radiation in shortest time with minimum dose to the targeted organ, sparing the surrounding critical organs and normal healthy tissues, ensuring safety of patients and the treating team. Elekta Synergy Linear Accelerator With VMAT Technology - Delhi′s first state-of-the-art Elekta Synergy Linear Accelerator with triple photon and seven electrons energies. This new technology delivers targeted radiation, with the help of highly sophisticated software, like missile from a computerized satellite. It delivers IMRT, IGRT, SRS, SRT, and SBRT with Arc Therapy. It delivers personalized, safe, efficient and high quality radiation with enhanced dose conformance as per the tumour size, shape and pathology. Learn More

Q2: Personalized diagnostics has received increasing attention, especially in the field of oncology. What is personalized diagnostics? What are the challenges and opportunities when used for cancer treatments? Please share your views. 

A: Emma Edward: The personalized diagnostic is an important part of personalized medicine. Personalized diagnostics refers to the personalized analysis of patients through genome sequencing, proteome analysis, and other methods, and then to customize the best treatment plan for patients.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Personalized diagnostics and medicine have been used in many cancers, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, etc. There are two main applications. One is to determine a person's probability of developing cancer by identifying known cancer-related genes. The other is to further refine cancer types by identifying specific gene sequencing sites to find the most effective drug or treatment for a particular patient in a range of anticancer drugs or treatments. Learn More

Dickens Hall: In my opinion, personalized diagnostics refers to a more accurate diagnosis with the ability to look at a patient on an individual basis. Personal information such as DNA sequence can be useful in personalized diagnostics. By having a detailed account of an individual's DNA sequence, their genome can then be compared to a reference genome, like that of the Human Genome Project, to assess the existing genetic variations that can account for possible cancer diseases. That’s one of the opportunities of application of personalized diagnostics to cancer treatment. Actually, a number of private companies, such as 23andMe, Navigenics, and Illumina, have already created Direct-to-Consumer genome sequencing accessible to the public. Based on acquired sequence, a personalized diagnostics can be given to the person as a reference for his/her disease treatment or health improvement.  Learn More

Kamini V: Personalized diagnostic tests are used to detect patient-to-patient variations in gene or protein expression levels, which act as indicators for drug treatments or disease prognosis. A key component of personalized medicine includes advanced testing of a patient's genetic information to help identify targeted treatment options. Leran More

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