Targeted Therapies

Cool video from the Cancerwise blog, published by M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houson, one of the better hospitals for lymphoma in the country. The blog entry features a video interview with Dr. Anas Younes, a lymphoma researcher at Anderson.


The video takes you through the research process for lymphoma drugs, particularly those drugs known as "targeted therapies" (which are pretty much the only kind of treatments being developed these days). Younes explains how his team looks at newly developed drugs and determines how they affect lymphoma cells at the genetic level -- how they affect the genes within the cells. (That's what makes them "targeted" -- unlike conventional chemotherapy, which wipes out pretty much anything in its path, targeted therapies seek out cancer cells specifically and mess with their genes, causing them to die, or at least stop growing.)


After the team identifies promising treatments in the lab, they are tested in a series of trials on humans to determine if they will work -- and will be safe.


I've written a lot about targeted therapies before. It's absolutely the future of cancer research, not just lymphoma research. As Younes points out, the targeting means greater effectiveness with less toxicity -- again, very unlike chemotherapies.


I thought it was interesting that Younes says that, after they find a promising drug in the lab, they start to use it in various combinations. Combinations, he says, are the most likely source for a cure, rather than single agents. Makes sense: survival rates for Follicular NHL have nearly doubled since Rituxan, a targeted therapy, has been combined with all sorts of other existing treatments.


Here's the video. It's a little over three minutes long, and a little bit science-y, but kind of cool to see how the whole process works.