Why targeted therapy

This protein helps make new blood vessels. Learn more about targeted therapy for colorectal cancer. Lung cancer. Drugs that block EGFR may also stop or slow lung cancer growth.

This may be more likely if the EGFR has certain mutations. Doctors can also use angiogenesis inhibitors for some lung cancers. Learn more about targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer. In lymphoma, there is an overproduction of B cells, a type of white blood cell that fights infections.

Targeted drugs that block the enzyme that leads to this overproduction of B cells have been very successful for the treatment of lymphomas and some B-cell leukemias.

Learn more about targeted therapies for lymphoma. About half of melanomas have a mutation in the BRAF gene. Researchers know certain BRAF mutations make good drug targets. But these drugs can be harmful if your tumor do not have the BRAF mutation. Learn more about targeted therapy for melanoma. The list of examples above does not include every targeted therapy. You can learn more about targeted therapy in each cancer-specific section on Cancer.

Net in the "Types of Treatment" and "Latest Research" pages. You can also learn more about the latest targeted therapy research on the Cancer.

Net blog. As with any cancer treatment, targeted therapy may not be the best treatment for every person with cancer. It may seem simple to use a drug for your specific cancer, but targeted therapy is complex, and it does not always work. It is important to know that:.

Or cells may become resistant to the targeted therapy, so the drug might work at first but then stop working. Also, targeted therapy drugs may cause serious side effects.

These are usually not the same as chemotherapy effects. Tips to reduce your drinking. Drinking alcohol when you have cancer.

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They are known as systemic treatment because the drugs circulate throughout the body. Cancer treatments may be used on their own or in combination. For example, you may have surgery to remove a tumour, followed by targeted therapy to stop the cancer returning. Sometimes targeted therapy is combined with chemotherapy. Doctors will recommend the best treatment for you based on the type and stage of cancer, its genetic make-up, your age and your general health.

To learn more about other treatments, see our sections on surgery , chemotherapy , radiation therapy and immunotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs affect all cells that multiply quickly. This means the drugs can kill cancer cells and also damage other cells that multiply quickly, such as healthy cells in the mouth, stomach, bone marrow or hair.

This is why chemotherapy side effects often include mouth ulcers, nausea, low numbers of blood cells leading to infections or anaemia and hair loss. Targeted therapy drugs work in a different way.

They focus on the cancer cells, while limiting damage to healthy cells. Many people experience fewer side effects with targeted therapy, but it can still cause various side effects. Sometimes these can be serious. Using targeted therapy to treat cancer has improved survival rates for several types of cancer, and many people respond well.

However, targeted therapy is not an option for everyone with cancer. In Australia, targeted therapy drugs are now available for a range of cancers, including blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma; common cancers such as bowel, breast, lung and melanoma; and other cancers such as cervical, head and neck, kidney, liver, ovarian, pancreatic, sarcoma, stomach and thyroid.

But so far, only a few type of cancers are routinely treated using only these drugs. Most people getting targeted therapy also need surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or hormone therapy.

Targeted therapy drugs, like other drugs used to treat cancer, are technically considered chemotherapy. Targeted drugs zero in on some of the changes that make cancer cells different from normal cells. This makes them work differently from chemotherapy in two key ways:. Targeted therapies are made to find and attack specific areas or substances in cancer cells, or can detect and block certain kinds of messages sent inside a cancer cell that tell it to grow.