Understanding Targeted Therapy

[D.ap]

“Targeted therapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs. But it is different from traditional chemotherapy, which also uses drugs to treat cancer. Targeted therapy works by targeting the cancer’s specific genes, proteins, or the tissue environment that contributes to cancer growth and survival. These genes and proteins are found in cancer cells or in cells related to cancer growth, like blood vessel cells.

Doctors often use targeted therapy with chemotherapy and other treatments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved targeted therapies for many types of cancer. Scientists are also testing drugs for new cancer targets.

The “targets” of targeted therapy

It is helpful to know how cancer cells grow in order to better understand how targeted therapy works. Cells make up every tissue in your body. There are many different cell types, such as blood cells, brain cells, and skin cells. Each type has a specific function. Cancer starts when certain genes in healthy cells change. This change is called a mutation.

Genes tell cells how to make proteins that keep the cell working. If the genes change, these proteins change, too. This makes cells divide abnormally or live too long. When this happens, the cells grow out of control and form a tumor. Learn more about the genetics of cancer.

Researchers are learning that specific gene changes take place in certain cancers. So they are developing drugs that target the changes. The drugs can:

Block or turn off signals that tell cancer cells to grow and divide

Keep cells from living longer than normal

Destroy the cancer cells”


https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cance ... ed-therapy