Cancer - Things To Know About It

Hi,

I am Dr. Meenu Walia, Oncologist, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi. Today I will talk about cancer. Cancer ek aisi bimari hai jahan pe humesha ek nayi research ki jarurat hoti hai so that we can give our patients maximum outputs and the best results. So, today I will tell about the newer techniques in the field of cancer. So far the conventional treatment for cancer was surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. So what are surgery and radiation? Jab cancer localized hota hai then these are the local therapies. Kyuki ye cancer ko vahin pe attack karte hain jahan pe cancer ke cells dikhte hain. Another thing is systematic therapy. Ab ye kya hoti hai? Systemic therapy mein medicines sharir ke har bhaag mein jaati hai. As we all know that cancer is a systemic problem to bgin with. Jab cancer ek jagah pe body mein dikhta hai toh uske cells body mein travel kar ke dusre organs pe attack karte hain. But jab se ye pata chala hai tab se cancer ke treatments improve ho chuke hain. Systmic therapy mein conventional treatment hota tha. Ab ismein chemotherapy di jaati hai. In chemotherapy medicines, drugs are given to kill cancers cells.

Apart from chemotherapy, there is a lot of newer treatment. Which are available for cancer treatment. Now, these can be in the form of target therapy, biological therapy, or immunotherapy. So, what target therapy is? So, targeted therapies are specialized therapies of some special drugs which identify the targets on the cancer cell. So, what we have to understand is that not all the cancer cells are the same. So, their may be having special cancer cells and special receptors. Jab hum chemotherapy dete hain toh iske paas koi bhi tarika nahi hai to distinguish ki cancer ka cell konsa hai aur normal ody ka cell konsa hai. So, chemotherapy kills all the rapidly dividing cells. So, in this, we are targeting special cells. So, certain cancer cells carry special targets. And when you give the therapy against the target, i.e. known as targeted therapy. It is found to do wonders in the field of cancer.

Like lung cancer mein aap special drugs dete hain jo ismein bahut acha response dete hain. Similarly, blood ka ek cancer hota hai jise chronic myeloid leukemia kehte hain. Same time there as also a discovery of the targeted drugs which would work against mutation. Ismein ye usi site pe jaake block karta hai. Target therapy ke aane se results bahut behtar ho gaye hain. Immunotherapy mein bhi bahut advancements hue hain. Ye cancer treatment mein bahut advance hain. Ye dekha gaya hai tha ki once the patient develops fever, unke ye cells kam karne kam kar dete hain. And that was the time jab immunotherapy invent ki gayi thi. Bacterial toxins ko bhi khatam karne ki koshish ki jaati hai which are used to inject in the cancer patients. Although it was a very old concept but helped a lot. Now cancer immunotherapy kafi advance tarike se available hain. This is divided into 3 categories. 1 is monoclonal antibodies.

This is developed against some targeted cells. And because it goes and target the cells, Same time they also activate the immune response of the body so that they can kill the cancer cells. The other therapy is in the form of vaccines. Vaccines in cancer can be of 2 types. It can be either therapeutic vaccines or preventive cancer vaccines. Therapeutic vaccines treat cancers. This is available for prostate cancer. The rest is mainly preventive vaccines. It can be something like we have a vaccine for cervical cancer and hepatitis B vaccine which will actually prevent infections and cancer in the long run. The other type of immunotherapies which are used for cancer, basically non-immunotherapies. So, these have been used for many years. This is known as immuno-oncology in the present world. In the cases where chemotherapy doesn't work, it has been found that immunotherapy helps.

So, the immunotherapies increase the recognition of the cancer cells and process to the body. So, cancer cells are not recognized by the body because either the cancer cells are masked or there are a lot of checkpoints which are occurring which keeps the immune system in control. They release the breaks in the immune system and it will work against the cancer cells and help in killing the cancer cells better. So, this seems to show a lot of headway in cancer care. And also, we try with the combination of chemotherapy and the results of cancers have improved a lot. So, now today cancer care is actually evolving and we are coming with a lot more care. Now the survival of the patients has immensely improved. And we are doing wonder in cancers which could not be thought of some years back. In case, you know somebody who might be benefitted with this information then do share the video.

Thank You!