BIOTECHNOLOGICAL INTERVENTION IN CANCER

 

It's been so long I couldn't write anything in my blogs. Since I was busy studying cancer. And Biotechnology has a greater impact on cancer research, I decided to dedicate this one post for cancer. It is definitely a great help for people suffering from cancer and will be highly beneficial. 

Biotechnology is an emerging and expanding field in the area of science and technology which has intervened cancer to a greater extent from diagnosing it's pathogenicity to its treatment,cure and prevention.

Biotechnology has expanded to include  diverse scientific techniques such as genomics, recombinant gene techniques, gene therapy, applied immunology, to development of pharmaceutical therapies and diagnostic tests for the study of Cancer. The study of Cancer means Oncology, where 'onco' means tumor and 'logy' means study.

Cancer is one of the devastating global health problems which are affecting millions of people worldwide including men, women and children.Biotechnological research has helped a lot in the field
of cancer research, particularly to the molecular diagnosis of cancer and drug delivery in cancer for personalized management of patients.

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth.It is the abnormal division of cells that leads to benign or malignant tumors. And it is to be noted that cancer do not affect a single cell. But it spreads from its primary site of origin to its distant organs if not treated properly at its early stage.The process of spread of cancerous cells is called metastasis that makes this disease a deadly one. So to research about cancer and it's metastasis spread biotechnologists use various tools and techniques.

Major types of cancer worldwide that is responsible for the highest mortality rate are basically lung cancer being the most prominent followed by colon cancer,breast cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer and liver cancer. The data and facts we come across cancer statistics is widely based upon different phases of survey. The use of biostatistics hypothesis analysis plays a vital role to prepare data interpretation

There are risk factors for different types of cancer which is diagnosed with Biotechnological tools. A cancer risk factor is anything that increases a person’s chance of getting cancer.

Cancer screening tests aim to find cancer early, before it causes symptoms and when it may be easier to treat successfully. Effective screening tests are those that it becomes easier to treat and possible to cure.
The screening of risk factors for various done for some major types of cancer are:

For lung Cancer:
Low-dose helical computed tomography (CT SCAN):

This test to screen for lung cancer has been shown to reduce lung cancer deaths among heavy smokers ages 55 to 74.

For Colon Cancer:

Colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy:

Several screening tests have been shown to reduce the risk of dying from colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy not only detect colorectal cancer early but also help prevent the disease in the first place. That's because these tests can find abnormal colon growths (polyps) that can be removed before they become cancer. It is used to view a part of the large intestine and find the cancerous cells in the colon and rectum.

For Stomach Cancer:

Study of H.pylori bacteria that causes gastritis and ulcers can help in screening of stomach Cancer.
CDH1 genes that causes stomach cancer can also be used to study stomach cancer. Smoked foods and foods containing high amount of nitrites and nitrates also causes stomach cancer.

For Breast cancer:

Mammography:

This method to screen for breast cancer has been shown to reduce deaths from the disease among women ages 40 to 74, especially those over age 50.

Breast MRI:

This imaging test is often used for women who carry a harmful mutation in the BRCA1 gene or the BRCA2 gene; women with these mutations have a high risk of breast cancer, as well as increased risk for other cancers.

Ultrasound:

Imaging test that can show tumor's location in the body. It is also used for screening liver cancer cells.Alpha-fetoprotein blood test is sometimes used, along with ultrasound of the liver, to try to detect liver cancer early in people at high risk of the disease. Hepatitis B or C infection can cause cirrhosis leading to liver cancer.

For Cervical Cancer:

Pap test and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing:

These tests is used singly and in combination leading to early detection and prevention of cervical cancer. It  prevents the disease because they allow abnormal cells to be found and treated before they become cancer.

For Prostate Cancer:

PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen test can be done to screen Prostate cancer starting at age 50.

People with a strong family history of cancer should consider genetic testing.Cancer is mostly a genetic and hereditary disease.

The next step after cancer screening is Cancer diagnosis or Cancer Imaging test. It is also known as Radiology. It is an important part of cancer clinical protocols which provides morphological, structural, metabolic and functional information of cancerous cells.

Here Imaging of mainly  four major types for cancer are explained:

X Rays:

They form plain films on the surface of the cancerous cells. X Rays are easily able to penetrate the cells as they are of short wavelength. The shorter the wavelength the deeper it penetrates and damages the cancer cells
They are CT SCAN and PET SCAN that involves the use of X-rays.

Magnetic field:
It provides the magnetic waves around the cancer cells to know its position.
It is basically MRI(Magnetic Resonance Imaging).It is an Imaging test done without using x-rays.
The tests that uses magnetic field are Breast MRI or Mammography.

Sound Waves:

It is called as Sonography or also  Ultrasound technique. It is usually tested during pregnancy. Here the sound Waves are vibrated around the cancer cells.
For the detection of liver and breast cancer ultra sound Waves is widely used.

Radio isotopes:
Here the radioactive drugs are introduced which have high affinity with the cancer cells.
They usually include nuclear medicine. However it is still in the area of research.

After successful completion of imaging of cancer cells,cell diagnosis is performed to obtain and study those tissues which are cancerous. Some of the cancer diagnosis techniques are:

Biopsy is used to diagnose cancer tissues.Bone Marrow Aspiration and Biopsy  provide information about blood cells as cancer cells.

Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) is used to check the lower rectum, pelvis, and lower belly cancerous cells.

Tumor Marker Tests is the type of tests that survey for substances made by cells in the body in response to cancer.

Then cancer staging is performed to detect how advanced the cancer is which is usually done by prognosis paradigm. The pattern how the cells becomes cancerous.
It is obtained by TNM system.(Tumor, Lymph Nodes, Metastasis in distant organs). If the cancer cells have reached lymph nodes and Various organs then it is termed to be final stage cancer.

Then Imaging Assessment of Treatment response is done along with monitoring. Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) is counted. The more CTCs present in the blood the worst the patient's prognosis is. Yet CTC is still a vast area of research which still has lots to discover from its density in blood cells to its uses.

Then treatment of cancer is followed subsequently which is of five major types:

Surgery:
It removes the part or the whole organ which is cancerous. There are various kinds of surgery which includes the removal of the tumor cells or removal of the part of the tumored organ or the dissection of the whole organ. It is carried out in various methods.
Diagnostic incisional and excisional surgery, palliative surgery, curative,preventive and reconstructive surgery being the most common.

Radiation therapy:

External beam radiation is induced that destroys the cancerous DNA by implanting radioactive seeds in tumor cells It can be used for palliative care.
Surgery and radiation therapy are combined together for the treatment of cancer.

Neoadjuvant therapy( Before surgery)->Surgery->Adjuvant therapy(After Surgery)

Pre treatment and pro treatment are usually chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Chemotherapy:

It destroys the dividing cells. Since cancer cells are rapidly dividing it destroys those dividing cells by inhibiting replication and inhibiting mitosis cell division. The replication inhibition drugs are anti metabolites base pair drugs which is intercalated into DNA and Topoisomerase inhibitors which inhibits the unwinding of DNA for replication.

Mitosis inhibition drugs are those that destroys the microtubule formation of the cancer cells for further cell division.

Hormone Therapy:

Anti-egestrone and anti- testesterone hormones are used to cure for breast cancer in females and prostate cancer in males respectively. Egesterone and Testesterone hormone promote cancer. So using its anti hormones can help treat cancer.

Immunotherapy:
It is the use of medicines to stimulate patients own immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells. The immune system use immune check point inhibitors to either turn on or off any kind of immune response. Those CTLA4 and PD1 proteins found in the cancer cells is inhibited by the T cells of the immune system. These receptors are then not able to bind with any ligands to help prevent Cancer.

Targeted Therapy:

Targeted Therapy inhibits proteins that are mutated or over expressed and those cells which are helping cancer to grow. This type of therapy is more widely used in cancer therapy. They are cancer cells specific and target only cancer cells and not other normal cells as in chemotherapy.

Gene Therapy:

Although there is no cancer gene therapy drug in the market yet,cancer research is being done in defining potential targets and in developing viral and nonviral gene delivery systems recently. Various gene therapy strategies, including suicide gene therapy, oncolytic viral therapies, antiangiogenesis, and gene therapy vaccines have been developed. The combination of gene therapy with conventional methods, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, has further improved the therapeutic efficacy.
Gene therapy can be defined as the delivery of genetic elements to the cancer cell or to the cells of the immune response in order to correct the abnormalities in the cancer tissue or to induce an immune response against the cancer cells. The corrective strategies can involve replacing missing or defective genes, tumor suppressor genes  suppressing the action of cancer promoting oncogenes. These  techniques widely use recombinant DNA technology.

Biotechnology has become a backbone of modern precision cancer medicine. Oncologists can personalize treatment therapies using information found within patients genetic codes which are not generalized.They can target specific DNA mutations found in tumors themselves.
Biotech researchers around the world are enthusiastically investigating new potential treatment modalities, from immunotherapies and small molecules that target specific mutations in tumor DNA, to genetically modified viruses that deliver cancer-fighting agents into cancer cells. They are in ongoing research for further advanced and well adopted technologies for the treatment therapies for cancer.

In a nutshell, cancer is definitely not a disease that's going to end anytime sooner. In fact because of the rapid development in  medicine for other diseases people have high life expectancy. And with the increase in age chances for cancer becomes very high. High cancer cases is going to need a lot of research for its diagnosis and treatment.
People must be aware for preventing Cancer. They must be aware not to use tobacco and cigarette before they get addicted. Using any type of tobacco puts oneself on a collision course with cancer.We should consider eating a healthy and balanced diet with no obesity causing chemicals. We should maintain a healthy weight and be physically active through exercise, sport and gym. We should protect ourself from the sun to prevent skin Cancer. One must be  vaccinated time and again against various diseases that could lead to cancer.And above all one should get regular medical care and have their whole body check up once to twice a year.

BY SANJITA NAPIT