Cancer research is continually developing, and the most recent innovations have the potential to revolutionise cancer detection and treatment.
The field has significantly advanced over the last two decades, but there’s always more that can be done.
Technological and pharmaceutical innovations impact research as much as clinical trials do.
“I feel that the more we can do, the more we can have on the back end to help translate to from the bench to the bedside,” Cure Brain Cancer Foundation CEO Lance Kawaguchi recently revealed.
“I’ve pretty much been on a mission the last two years to really try to support collaborations globally, and really try to invest as much as possible in early stage biotechs, but also on the newest innovations, like liquid biopsies, like some of the immunotherapies.”
Johns Hopkins Medical Oncologist Dr. Matthias Holdhoff has been researching in the industry, and has seen how things have quickly evolved in that time – as well as the “targeted therapy” approach required for cancer patients.
“For cancer, it’s not one size fits all,” he outlines. “We are pursuing individualised treatment for patients with cancer.
“We are now thinking more of a disease or pathway-based approach.”
One roadblock in the industry has been obtaining enough data and information to allow these technologies and therapies to be used daily.
“We need clinical trials. And one of the challenges here in the United States or worldwide is the very low percentage of individuals who have aggressive cancers, participating in clinical trials,” Neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Dr. Chetan Bettegowda says.
“While there are opportunities, I think we as the oncology community, need to do better with outreach, having these trials available locally and diffusely.
“So that we can allow these novel technologies to be tested rigorously and comprehensively and allow them to reach far more people than they do today.
I think huge initiatives need to be enhanced, in order to allow these technologies to go from just a concept, just an idea into a reality that helps human beings with cancer.”
