One thing scientists have learned after years of study is that cancer isn’t just one disease. While a lot more research needs to be done, scientists have made great strides. One area of focus is our immune systems. Another is genetics.
Our immune systems work to protect us from foreign bodies that can hurt us. We just need to be able to identify these to fight them. We now know that cancer can sometimes hide which prevents our immune system from finding the cancerous cells. New immunotherapy techniques help our immune systems attack the cancer by 1) Preventing the cancer from hiding and 2) Boosting our immune response against cancer.
Genomics is the study of changes to the genes in your DNA. It’s giving doctors important clues about how your cancer will act and with this knowledge, they can make the best determination for treatment. It works by looking for changes called mutations in certain cancer genes. Once found, doctors can better diagnose the cancer, predict the outcome and decide on the best drug or treatment. They can also monitor how well the treatment is working.
These new developments mean faster identification and diagnoses to help treat cancers more quickly and easily which often leads to a cure.
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