First of all the research is being done in the lab. Ever since cancer began being studied more seriously, scientists and doctors have found out a lot of new things about all the types of cancer, even inside the cancer affecting the same organ. They discovered the type of cancer where the cancer cells have estrogen and testosteron receptors and they also discovered the genes that are responsible for cancer appearance in a certain person. Being able to make all these distinctions allowed them to act in a specific direction and of course after some time the results showed. Thus there were some rumours first about a breast cancer new drug that is able to shrink tumours considerably more than other drugs and it could act even in the most advanced phases of the breast cancer, but also in cervical cancer and prostate cancer.
Its name is PARP or PARP inhibitors and it attacks the modified genes of the human DNA, that is exactly the genes responsible for cancer - BRCA1 and BRCA2. It was invented a few years ago, but all drugs must go through a testing period first when they use lab animals and only after the results are satisfactory they are allowed to begin the clinical trials on humans. It is a long and bumpy process because theyhave to find the exact volunteers to fit the profile where the drug acts and also these patients must be monitors for several years waiting for good results or else the results are considered inconclusive.
Apparently this breast cancer new drug has appeared in 2009, but I am not sure if it is FDA approved and if the treatment with this new drug is covered by the health insurance.
The other breast cancer new drug I wanted to tell you about is called Tykerb. This drug is said to work even better than the wonder drug released a few years ago, Herceptin, being able to double the amount of time a woman will live on after the breast cancer treatment.
This time the drug goes in a totally different direction and attacks only the HER2, a protein that is responsible with the uncontrolable growth of the cancer cells in the case of breast cancer patients. There was a consistent clinical trial and study made and the results were really good, showing without a doubt the beneficial effects of the drug. Presently oncologists are trying to see if this drug can also be used in the ase of other solid tumours, for example in the head and neck cancer or even prostate cancer.