Targeted therapy is a type of Cancer Treatment that uses drugs designed to “target” cancer cells without affecting normal cells.
Cancer cells typically have changes in their genes that make them different from normal cells. Genes are part of a cell’s DNA that tell the cell to do certain things. When a cell has certain gene changes, it does not behave like a normal cell. For example, gene changes in cancer cells might allow the cell to grow and divide very quickly. These types of changes are what make it a cancer cell.
But there are many different types of cancer, and not all cancer cells are the same. For example, Colon Cancer and Breast Cancer cells have different gene changes that help them grow and/or spread. Even among different people with the same general type of cancer (such as colon cancer), the cancer cells can have different gene changes, making one person’s specific type of Colon Cancer different from another person’s.
Researchers have also learned that the environment in which different cancers start, grow, and thrive are not always the same. For example, some cancers have certain types of proteins or enzymes send certain messages to tell the cancer cell to grow and copy itself.
Knowing these details has led to the development of drugs that can “target” these proteins or enzymes and block the messages being sent. Targeted drugs can block or turn off signals that make cancer cells grow, or can signal the cancer cells to destroy themselves.
Targeted therapy is an important type of cancer treatment, and researchers will develop more targeted drugs as they learn more about specific changes in cancer cells. But so far, only a few type of cancers are routinely treated using only these drugs. Most people getting Targeted therapy also need surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or Hormone therapy.
Targeted therapies are made to find and attack specific areas or substances in cancer cells, or can detect and block certain kinds of messages sent inside a cancer cell that tell it to grow. Some of the substances in cancer cells that become the “targets” of targeted therapies are:
The action of targeted drugs can work to:
The action of the drugs can affect where these drugs work and what side effects they cause.
Many kinds of cancer can be treated with targeted therapies, and there are many different types of targeted therapies. Here are some types with a few examples of how they are used.
Different targeted therapies offer different benefits. Depending on your treatment goals, your drug(s) may be used to:
Scientists had expected that targeted cancer therapies would be less toxic than traditional chemotherapy drugs because cancer cells are more dependent on the targets than are normal cells. However, targeted cancer therapies can have substantial side effects.
The most common side effects seen with targeted therapies are diarrhea and liver problems, such as hepatitis and elevated liver enzymes. Other side effects seen with targeted therapies include:
Certain side effects of some targeted therapies have been linked to better patient outcomes. For example, patients who develop acneiform rash (skin eruptions that resemble acne) while being treated with the signal transduction inhibitors erlotinib (Tarceva®) or gefitinib (Iressa®), both of which target the epidermal growth factor receptor, have tended to respond better to these drugs than patients who do not develop the rash. Similarly, patients who develop high blood pressure while being treated with the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab generally have had better outcomes.
The few targeted therapies that are approved for use in children can have different side effects in children than in adults, including immunosuppression and impaired sperm production.
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