Cancer Immunotherapy
Advancements in Cancer Technology and Treatment
Even though there is no cure for cancer, technology has made many strides in hoping to cure cancer. In 2003, Eric Schuetz, a pharmacist who works for the Maryland Poison Center, learned that he had an inoperable brain tumor after receiving an MRI scan for a non-cancerous pituitary tumor. Within that year he received “gamma knife” treatment, and then 10 years later ran a half-marathon with his wife to help fundraise money for the cancer center. When thinking about how far we’ve come from the older cancer treatments like radium or even believing that there is no treatment, to Eric Schuetz running a half marathon a decade after treatment is astonishing. Although we have not quite found a cure yet, …show more content…
(“Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential."). However, some of the public was skeptical of this new treatment. When the public questioned the use of immunotherapy, researchers explained, “In 2013, cancer immunotherapy was named ‘breakthrough of the year’” breaking expectations in clinical testing. (“Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential”). This concept of immunotherapy has been around since the 1980s, however it was used as treatment in Japan since about the 1990s. This means that immunotherapy is not a new treatment, but it is one of the few with an extremely high success rate in ridding the body of cancer. (Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential.) This advancement in medicine has come a long way, and has less damaging effects than say radium treatment. In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta Lacks is an African-American woman in the 1950s and 60s. She is diagnosed with cervical cancer and given radium as a treatment as well as radiation. “The skin from Henrietta’s breasts to her pelvis was charred a deep black from the radiation” (Skloot 48). The adverse effects that older medicine has on the human body is borderline horrific. She died on October 4, 1951. Knowing that technology has come so far with these treatments, it has become safe to say that one day cancer will be
Even though there is no cure for cancer, technology has made many strides in hoping to cure cancer. In 2003, Eric Schuetz, a pharmacist who works for the Maryland Poison Center, learned that he had an inoperable brain tumor after receiving an MRI scan for a non-cancerous pituitary tumor. Within that year he received “gamma knife” treatment, and then 10 years later ran a half-marathon with his wife to help fundraise money for the cancer center. When thinking about how far we’ve come from the older cancer treatments like radium or even believing that there is no treatment, to Eric Schuetz running a half marathon a decade after treatment is astonishing. Although we have not quite found a cure yet, …show more content…
(“Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential."). However, some of the public was skeptical of this new treatment. When the public questioned the use of immunotherapy, researchers explained, “In 2013, cancer immunotherapy was named ‘breakthrough of the year’” breaking expectations in clinical testing. (“Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential”). This concept of immunotherapy has been around since the 1980s, however it was used as treatment in Japan since about the 1990s. This means that immunotherapy is not a new treatment, but it is one of the few with an extremely high success rate in ridding the body of cancer. (Targeting the T-cell Co-stimulatory CD27/CD70 Pathway in Cancer Immunotherapy: Rationale and Potential.) This advancement in medicine has come a long way, and has less damaging effects than say radium treatment. In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta Lacks is an African-American woman in the 1950s and 60s. She is diagnosed with cervical cancer and given radium as a treatment as well as radiation. “The skin from Henrietta’s breasts to her pelvis was charred a deep black from the radiation” (Skloot 48). The adverse effects that older medicine has on the human body is borderline horrific. She died on October 4, 1951. Knowing that technology has come so far with these treatments, it has become safe to say that one day cancer will be