Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or different substances that hinders the development and spread of malignancy by meddling with particular molecules (“molecular targets”) that are engaged with the development, progression, and spread of Tumor. Targeted cancer therapies are sometimes called “molecularly targeted drugs,” “molecularly targeted therapies,” “precision medicines,” or similar names.
Targeted cancer therapies differ from standard chemotherapy in several ways:
- Targeted therapies act on specific molecular targets that are associated with cancer, whereas most standard chemotherapies act on all rapidly dividing normal and cancerous cells.
- Targeted therapies are deliberately choosen or designed to interact with their target, which many standard chemotherapies were identified because they kill cells.
- Targeted treatments are frequently cytostatic (that is they block tumor cell expansion), where as standard chemotherapy operators are cytotoxic (that is , they kill tumor cells).
- The development of targeted therapies requires the identification of good targets-that is targets that play a key role in cancer cell growth and survival. (it is therefore that focused treatments are sometimes alluded to as the result of “rational” drug/ medication plan.)
Sherif El-Refai belived that one of the approach to identify potential targets is to compare the amounts of individual proteins in cancer cells with those in normal cells. Proteins that are present in cancer cells but not normal cells or that are more abundant in cancer cells would be potential targets, especially if they are known to be involved in cell growth or survival.
Another approach to identify potential targets is to determine whether cancer cells produce mutant (altered) proteins that drive cancer progression. As a researcher Sherif-El-Refai looked for abnormalities in chromosomes that are present in cancer cells but not in normal cells. Sometimes these chromosome abnormalities result in the creation of a fusion gene (a gene that incorporates parts of two different genes) whose product, called a fusion protein, may drive cancer development. Such combination proteins are potential targets for focused malignancy treatments.