The future of cancer cures: Liquid biopsy, immunotherapy, glioblastoma treatment

Getting diagnosed with cancer is a life-changing alarming news, but battling the illness is another story. Luckily, these days, patients are now presented with a new hope in the form of innovative cures.

Thanks to hard-working oncologists and biotech companies, these modern cures are replacing chemotherapy as a solution and they are currently shaping the future of curing cancer in the most painless and effective way possible.

Liquid biopsy

Tina Nova, senior vice president of oncology at Illumina, discussed the positive results of liquid biopsy in her essay on Wired. Liquid biopsy is a test that will detect tumor DNA circulating in the blood even before it develops into a cancerous tumor. Compared to the painful tissue biopsy, liquid biopsy does not give the patient any physical pain.

Nova hopes that through liquid biopsy, oncologists will be able to detect cancer at its earliest stage, earlier than ever before. According to Nova, liquid biopsy is “the most exciting” thing she has ever encountered during her career. Illumina is currently on its research phase of building a library of circulating tumor DNA. These DNA are the genetic fragments that Illumina hopes they can detect through a simple blood test.

Immunotherapy

There have been many positive results about Immunotherapy and how it attacks cancer by strengthening the patient’s own immune system. Some reports deem the cure “miraculous,” while others see it as a bright sign of hope. A report by Medscape revealed how a 49-year-old woman with metastatic melanoma was led to the recovery road by immunotherapy.

The report stated that after a single dose of an experimental immunotherapy combination, the tumor under her left breast disappeared. Clinicians from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City referred to the development as “remarkable,” in a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Biotech companies around the world are starting to develop different kinds of immunotherapy cures for different kinds of cancers, and one of them is California-based Nascent Biotech, Inc. (OTC:NBIO). Nascent has developed Pritumumab, a natural human antibody that has been used to treat 250 cancer patients. The antibody’s Phase II clinical trials in Japan for patients with brain cancer showed an overall response between 25 to 30 percent, with survivors going beyond 5 years into remission.

Glioblastoma treatment

Another latest cancer cure is the use of poliovirus to attack cancerous tumors inside the body. Called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the cure was given a closer look by the show 60 Minutes during its 10-month clinical trial. Molecular biologist Dr. Matthias Gromeier saw what the poliovirus can do to the human body and thought that it could harness the same effect on brain tumors.

GBM treatment is done by injecting the virus directly into the brain tumor, once there, the virus increases the body’s immune response against tumor cells.

“So cancers, all human cancers, they develop a shield or shroud of protective measures that make them invisible to the immune system. And this is precisely what we try to reverse with our virus. By infecting the tumor, we are actually removing this protective shield,” Dr. Gromeier rold 60 Minutes, as reported by The Market Business.

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