The body's defense system

The body is an amazing machine, designed to be strong and resilient. It heals from its wounds and defends itself against diseases. It generates T lymphocytes that travel through the body to detect and detect and destroy abnormalities and foreign agents. Most of the time, the system self-regulates without us even realizing the work it accomplishes. However, it sometimes malfunctions, as when cancer develops.

Immune system's phases

As explained by Dr. Jedd Wolchock, an oncologist who treated cancer, the immune system's response to cancer consists of several phases. The first is elimination: a tumor appears, the immune system detects it and gets rid of it. The next phase is balance: a tumor appears, the immune system detects it, but cannot really get rid of it, and the cancer does not act, does not spread. Finally, there is the escape phase: the tumor has acquired qualities that allow it to escape the immune system.

Cancer's evasion tactics

Cancer cells emit an inhibitory signal that disrupts the immune system's response, allowing cancer to survive and spread. This is why T lymphocytes meant to destroy them do not know how to proceed.

Traditional cancer treatment

For generations, cancer treatment has changed very little, as it still requires undergoing surgeries, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy—the traditional trio designated by the terms "cut, burn, poison." For many patients, these treatments are very effective, but they often come at the expense of the healthy parts of the body. Surgery removes large pieces of tissue around the cancerous area. Chemotherapy destroys healthy dividing cells, like cancer cells.

Historical perspectives on cancer

The disease, like its treatment, comes at a high price. In a 1957 writing, the Australian virologist Macfarlane Burnet stated that there was little room for optimism with cancer, adding that at the time, cancer drugs were also carcinogenic. He pointed out that there was an approach somewhat more encouraging, but which had never been seriously considered, due to its strong dependence on the body's resources: the immunological approach.

A new era in cancer research

When President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act in 1971 aimed at fighting the disease, it marked the beginning of a new era in the study of cancer development and new ways to treat it. According to Dr. James Allison, professor of immunology and general director of the immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Medical Center, the best advisors in the field said: "We don't really know what else to do other than chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery to eliminate cancer." He added that the progress in understanding the normal regulation of the cell cycle and how it becomes deregulated due to cancer is remarkable.

Modern research initiatives

About forty years later, in 2009, the Obama administration launched a similar initiative, promising to allocate significant funds to medical research in many areas, including a billion dollars dedicated to "research into the genetic causes of cancer and potential targeted treatments." Yet, even today, the default protocol for treating a patient is often limited to the usual trio: surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy.

The complexity of cancer

One of the other difficulties researchers have faced is the deplorable immensity of forms cancer can take. Humans can suffer from more than a hundred types of cancer that can affect the blood, bones, and organs. The term cancer is vague, but the terms "sneaky" and "unpredictable" seem to characterize it all. A major discovery on a specific type of cancer is not necessarily synonymous with hope of a cure for other types. Neuroblastoma is not the same as breast cancer.

Personalized cancer treatment

The term "breast cancer" itself has a different meaning for a person with BRCA2 gene mutations than for someone without them. Similarly, due to personal circumstances and cellular mutations, one person's melanoma is not another's. This is why there will probably never be a single treatment for cancer. And I say this as a person who, let it be noted, has been cured of cancer. Cancer is not an ordinary disease and it will certainly never be remedied with a simple magic potion. It must be approached through various protocols.

The future of cancer treatment

Therefore, when individuals, thinking they are doing good (or more annoyingly, certain cancer-fighting organizations, which should be the first to be informed) talk about finding the "cure" for this "disease," there is a good chance they are advancing a lot of nonsense. The path of progress in medical research does not lead to a single solution for all problems. Fortunately, thanks to the progress, increasing sophistication, and deepening of science, more and more patients will have the opportunity to be prescribed a specific treatment (or a combination of treatments) that will likely eradicate their cancer.

The uniqueness of each case

Despite this, there will always be people for whom these same treatments will prove ineffective. We are not the product of an assembly line. Our bodies are unique. Our cancers are as well.