Three Advances in Cancer Research and Treatment

Hello, I'm Dr. John Whyte, and I'm the Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. Even though cancer remains a leading cause of death, and many of you need to get caught up with your screenings, there have been some amazing advances in the last few years in cancer research and treatment.

I want to tell you about three exciting advancements. They give us some hope that even if we can't completely eradicate cancer in the next few years, maybe we can at least make it a chronic condition that one can live with and manage.

The first is targeted immunotherapies. Just like the name implies, we choose treatments based on the characteristics of your specific tumor. They then use your immune system to attack just those cancer cells. You may have heard about some of them-- immune checkpoint inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and CAR T-cell therapy.

The second is improved blood tests and liquid biopsies. Wouldn't it be great if we could use a blood test for cancer, not to have to get a piece of tissue for a biopsy? I mentioned at the beginning that we all need to make sure we're up to date on our screenings. Believe it or not, though, we can't screen for most cancer. That's why we need an accurate blood test.

We're starting to see promise, particularly for some cancers. More work, though, needs to be done, but this is one of the most rapid areas of research.

The third is determining the role our lifestyle plays in cancer. Genetics certainly plays an important role in whether someone develops cancer, but the majority is influenced by such things as what we eat, how active we are, and where we live. We're getting better at understanding the role that lifestyle plays and what we can all do in order to reduce cancer risk.

The key-- let's become informed about advances in cancer screening and treatment. Knowledge is power, and better information leads to better health.