What are cancer therapies based on?
Prevention
Treatment
How can diet prevent cancer?
Cancer has been linked to the diet- various cohort studies show that limiting consumption of certain foods can prevent malignancy.
What in the diet is colorectal cancer associated with?
Red meat
What in the diet is breast cancer associated with?
Saturated fat
What are environmental changes aided by?
Social standard policies- implementing healthcare-related policies such as the smoking ban, alcohol minimum pricing and vaccination programmes have prevented cancers.
How can screening prevent cancer?
Allows early recognition of dysplasia or tumour formation- can prevent malignancy. Seen in colorectal screening and cervical PAP smear tests for cervical cancer.
How can genetics prevent cancer?
It is clear that genetics plays a role in predisposition to cancer. For example, the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes for breast cancer and the FAP genes.
How can chemo-prevention work?
Can work in predisposition-prone individuals- some patents vulnerable to breast cancer will receive drug prophylactic treatment. In China, many people consume antioxidant therapies to prevent oesophageal cancer.
What are the two types of cancer therapy?
Local therapy
Systemic therapy
How does local therapy work?
Directly treats the malignancy.
What is staging?
Staging occurs in local therapy to recognise WHERE the malignancy is and WHAT it is in terms of pathology and cytology.
What are the two examples of local therapies?
Surgery
Radiotherapy
How does surgery treat cancer?
Attempts to directly remove or limit the malignancy. Over 50% of cancers are cured using surgery.
What does surgery require?
Anatomical clearance.
How does radiotherapy treat cancer?
Attempts to remove the tumour through radioactivity and extensive coverage of the surrounding tissue- over 40% of cancers are cured using radiotherapy.
What does radiotherapy require?
Anatomical coverage.
What is systemic therapy associated with?
Palliative care.
What can systemic therapies result in?
Extreme toxicity to body tissues.
What do targeted systemic therapy agents have the potential to be?
Highly specific.
Why must an appropriate dose regime be established?
To ensure that there is a balance between the therapeutic index of the therapy and the toxicity in the patient.
How do immune therapies work?
They can be non-specific or specific. For example, PD-1 pathway is non-specific but others are specific such as that of monoclonal antibodies and CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cells.
