Stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, is a disease that affects the lining of the stomach and is very complicated. It is the fifth most common cancer in the world and the third most common cause of death from cancer. Over the years, there have been a lot of improvements in how stomach cancer is treated. Precision medicine and targeted therapies are two promising methods. This article talks about how these new treatments are used to for stomach cancer treatment and how they are changing the way cancer care is done.
Understanding Targeted Therapies and Precision Medicine
Precision medicine is a way of providing health care that takes into account the unique genes, environments, and lifestyles of each patient to create personalized treatment plans. Precision medicine can help find specific genetic mutations or molecular features in tumors that can be treated with specialized therapies. Unlike traditional chemotherapy, which affects both cancerous and healthy cells, this makes it possible to tailor treatment to each person.
Targeted therapies are drugs or other treatments that kill only cancer cells with certain molecular traits while leaving healthy cells alone. This targeted approach can help patients have fewer side effects, better treatment results, and a better quality of life. Monoclonal antibodies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and immune checkpoint inhibitors are some of the most common targeted therapies used to treat cancer.
How Precision Medicine is Used to Treat Stomach Cancer
Precision medicine has made big steps forward in treating stomach cancer by letting doctors make treatment plans based on the molecular features of each patient’s tumor. This personalized approach can help patients get better results and have less side effects.
Here are some ways that precision medicine affects the treatment of stomach cancer:
- Identifying molecular subtypes: Stomach cancer can be put into different molecular subtypes based on the tumor’s genes and molecules. By figuring out which of these subtypes a patient has, doctors can figure out the best way to treat them.
- Personalized treatment plans: When doctors know the molecular features of a patient’s tumor, they can make a treatment plan that targets the specific genetic mutations or molecular pathways that are causing the cancer to grow. This can help patients get better care and have better outcomes.
- Predicting how a patient will respond to therapy: Precision medicine can help doctors figure out which patients are more likely to respond to certain treatments. This lets them decide what the best next step is.
- Precision medicine can also be used to track how well a patient’s treatment is working. This gives doctors important information about whether the cancer is responding to the therapy or if changes need to be made.
Targeted Therapies in the Treatment of Stomach Cancer
Targeted therapies have changed the way people with stomach cancer are treated by giving them more effective and less harmful options.
Some targeted therapies that are currently used to treat stomach cancer are:
- HER2-targeted therapy: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a protein that can be overexpressed in some stomach cancers, leading to more cell growth and division. Trastuzumab and other HER2-targeted therapies can find and block the HER2 protein, which stops cancer cells from growing.
- VEGF-targeted therapy: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a protein that helps form new blood vessels, which can help tumors grow and spread. Therapies that target VEGF, like ramucirumab, can stop the VEGF protein from working. This cuts off the blood supply to the tumor and slows its growth.
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors: Drugs like pembrolizumab and nivolumab, which are immune checkpoint inhibitors, can help the immune system find and attack cancer cells better. Some types of stomach cancer, especially those with high levels of the PD-L1 protein or microsatellite instability (MSI), may be treatable with these therapies.
- Multi-targeted kinase inhibitors: Some stomach cancers may have changes in their genes that cause multiple signaling pathways that help cancer cells grow and stay alive to work too hard. Multi-targeted kinase inhibitors, like regorafenib, can block more than one of these pathways at once, which could make treatment work better.
Challenges and Plans for the Future
Even though targeted therapies and precision medicine have shown promise in treating stomach cancer, there are still some problems to solve. One big problem is finding new molecular targets for therapy, because not all patients’ tumors have known targets that can be used to treat them. Also, targeted therapies can lose their effectiveness over time, which means that new ways of treating the disease will need to be found.
For stomach cancer, future research on precision medicine and targeted therapies should focus on finding new molecular targets and making new treatments to deal with resistance. Combining targeted therapies with other types of treatment, like chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy, may also improve treatment outcomes and help overcome resistance. In the end, precision medicine and targeted therapies have become important ways for stomach cancer treatment. By tailoring treatments to the molecular features of a patient’s tumor, these new approaches may help patients get better results and have fewer side effects. At Max Healthcare, doctors work hard to stay on the cutting edge of new ways to treat cancer, like using precision medicine and targeted therapies in our treatment plans. By using these cutting-edge methods, the hospital tries to give the patients best care possible and assists them to get the best results possible in their fight against stomach cancer.