Dr Joseph Kamugisha Recently, I was approached by a 50-year-old mother who seemingly presented with a worried face and reportedly heard news about the increase of cancer cases reported in the country. When I looked at her face, I immediately drove her in comfort and assured her that cancer disease is no longer incurable as the old story tells due to emergency of various cancer medications from different parts of the world. In modern settings, cancer should be managed in a routine manner. The behavior of a cancer cell is known to every cancer specialist and only requires availability of facilities to stop its growth in the body. However, we should all agree that good cancer therapies require advanced technology in medical settings. We should therefore strive to acquire modern equipment’s for cancer as done in other parts of the world. People or institutions can combine efforts to acquire greater achievements and not necessary wait for the government to provide the necessary support. We also do understand the worries from the society about the challenges posed by cancer aggression and this calls for an aggressive approach in cancer management with in our society. You do not use a wooden stick to fight a fierce animal like a leopard or lion. In other words, every aggressive problem should be handled by an aggressive treatment modality. Scientists in the cancer field and from various parts of the world have worked tirelessly on several clinical trials especially in the development of new drugs. Cancer research studies are annually conducted on a large scale world-wide and there has been development of new drugs that help to fight the disease or minimize disease progression. Genetic predisposition is known to be the highest known risk factor and people with family cancer history should be advised to seek annual check-ups from experienced physicians. Other risk factors like viral infections, bacterial infections or exposure to circulating carcinogens should be continually checked in an effort to fight-off the disease. There are several alternative therapies to cleanse the body from infections and toxins. Once the body is secured from continued exposure to infections and toxins, these greatly minimize the occurrence of several cancer conditions. We still need a lot of hard work from the medical scientists with in the country. The behavior of a cancer cell in the body has been widely studied and found to attack the body defense cells especially the T-cells. This has led to the development of immunotherapy or biological treatment to the disease. Immunotherapy treatment is currently the most exciting development in cancer treatment and dominates most cancer clinical trials and in new cancer medications development. Scientists have been looking at the immunotherapy treatment with greater options as compared to the chemotherapy medications that in most cases offer low-response to the illness. Occurrence of new medications has offered a broad-range of cancer treatment options. Studies have shown that some biological treatment protocols have been effective in the treatment of terminally ill cancer patients. A clinical trial done on 958 cancer patients in Britain showed that at least 58 percent of the patients had responded well to the biological treatment of ipilimumab when combined with nivolumab in the treatment of terminally ill skin cancer patients. The problem with drug combination increases the likelihood of side effects. In the past, Scientists have struggled to trace the failure of the immune system to attack cancer cells in the same way that the defense system of the body can attack other viral infections. It has been discovered that cancer cells just like HIV virus can hide from the defense cells (T-cells) that can kill the body’s foreign invasion. The hide-outs persuade the T-cells not to attack them so as to adopt in the body and inflict progressive damage to the immune system. The immunotherapy treatment option offer chance the body’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. The battle for immunotherapy studies continues because most medications in the treatment of advanced cancer diseases delay progression of the disease but does not offer curative options. Identification of the patients who are likely to benefit from the biological treatment is usually key in the successful treatment against the disease.
