Cancer has a reputation as a silent killer. Despite the many advancements in the medical field, cancer remains elusive and tough to foresee and cure. Medical and lab testing in oncology have gone so far as to diagnose the malignancy and mitigate or treat the consequences once the disease is confirmed. While cancers with a hereditary strain are easy to predict through preventive molecular diagnostics backed by genetic science, the causes of certain types of cancers are yet to be known.
Constant developments in molecular and genetic science and technology in oncology research have resulted in newer anticancer therapies, such as targeted therapy, to replace traditional chemotherapeutics in treating numerous forms of cancer. Further research is expanding the treatment options almost every few years. Given the rapid improvements in biotechnology, therapy development is also inclined towards harnessing natural resources or compounds and utilising them as a potential cure for cancer.
In the area of molecular diagnostics used in cancer treatment, Helvetica Health Care (HHC) provides a broad range of lab testing items that meet exacting criteria. In this post, we provide you with more details on the anticancer therapy concepts that guide treatment programmes and the function of molecular diagnostics in laboratories for cancer diagnosis.
Principles Of Anticancer Therapy
Anticancer treatment’s primary goal is to identify how the tumour will likely evolve so that the proper course of action can be taken. Since every case is unique, anticancer therapy should be assessed for each patient after taking into account all relevant features.
The delicate and protracted process of treating cancer begins with a process called disease staging. Many tests are run after a cancer diagnosis to determine the grade and stage of the tumour tissue, the amount of the disease’s spread throughout the patient’s body, and the severity of the disease. In addition to helping surgeons, oncologists, and other healthcare professionals categorise the tumour, accurate staging also provides them with information about treatment options, planning, and predicting the prognosis of the illness.
Prognosis and evaluation of the potential risks are also identified in staging, which can determine the need for standard approaches or participation in clinical trials. The choice of therapy also depends on individual factors. A comprehensive assessment of the patient’s general health, age, preferences, beliefs, quality of life, nutritional status, social support, and mental health is performed. This assessment helps make informed decisions influencing therapy options and the ability of the patient to tolerate therapy.
Therapy determination requires the setting of a general therapeutic goal. Anticancer therapies must aim to cure, control or prolong the patient’s survival or the palliation of symptoms and to prevent complications. If the patient’s disease status changes, the goal may have to be re-examined. The goal also justifies the side effects of the treatment, whether temporary or permanent.
Anticancer therapies often involve
- curative treatment,
- adjuvant treatment and/or neoadjuvant treatment and
- palliative and symptomatological treatment
Curative treatments, as the name suggests, are intended to cure the patient by complete excision of the tumour (through surgery) and aim at recovery. Some curative therapies are intensive and can result in total remission of the disease. However, despite total remission, there are often chances of a relapse. Hence, curative treatment may become palliative in nature.
While surgery continues to be the primary curative therapy, many associated treatments have emerged over the past few decades. The combined methods and techniques that are most adopted in human oncology are surgery and/or chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, cryotherapy and immunotherapy.
Adjuvant therapy assists more complex treatments or impedes undesirable development (recurrences, metastases) while participating in concurrent, preferably curative polytherapy. Adjuvant treatment commences post the primary curative therapy (usually surgery).
Neoadjuvant therapy is administered “before” the primary tumour is removed, eliminating probable systemic damage.
Palliative treatment, on the other hand, is not aimed at recovery but only improves symptomatology and/or helps to prolong life while offering a chance to live a healthy life.
Sometimes curative treatments produce a palliative effect, but never the other way around.
Treatment planning requires a multidisciplinary approach that may need to be applied throughout the cancer treatment process. An integrated team approach enables medical and allied health care specialists to weigh all appropriate treatment alternatives and design a unique treatment plan for the individual.
Modalities For Cancer Treatment
Fortunately, today several anticancer therapies can destroy cancer cells and assist patients in recovering from this serious disease. Patients can be suggested a combination of these therapeutic options based on the treatment goal and plan.
Today, oncology has the following modalities.
- Surgery
- Radiotherapy
- Chemotherapy (combined with hormone therapy)
- Antineoplastic drugs
- Biological and molecular targeted therapies (which are supportive treatments)
- Nano Therapy
- Gene Therapy
- Hormonal Therapy
- Immunotherapy
The detection of neoplastic diseases is proven to be based on advanced molecular diagnostics. The identification of high-risk families and the assessment of each family member’s cancer risk are made possible by molecular or genetic testing. By using commercially available sequencing panels for hereditary ovarian and breast cancers, it is possible to evaluate the majority of the genes connected to hereditary cancer issues. In addition, genetic testing is quite effective at identifying melanoma, chronic myeloid leukaemia, and cystic fibrosis risk factors. Molecular diagnostics can also find biomarkers that show a treatment’s effectiveness.
The EXTERNAL RUN CONTROLS, NAT controls, panels and serology controls supplied by HHC are designed to validate your molecular testing. Using these external controls we help you create confidence in lab testing procedures and while promising consistent molecular results. Many of our controls are CE / IVD. The use of external controls is highly recommended under ISO15189:2012, as they provide an independent verification that the molecular assay is working correctly and thus their use provides an assessment of quality.
Our products offer better patient safety, promise quality outcomes, and confirm the competence of medical laboratories by customers, regulating authorities and accreditation bodies competence. Some controls have been developed in collaboration with leading platform manufacturers to optimise concentration levels in line with the particular platform.
Contact us to find a suitable control to validate your molecular lab testing applications.
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