The Issue Of Cancer Research: Current Status, Benefits, And Challenges

Write an essay on  issue of cancer research?

The current report deals with the issue of cancer research. It aims to highlight the status of cancer research at present. By providing the details about cancer research and its eminent benefits the report intends to present a sound knowledge and deep insights on the issue of cancer, which is constantly gaining more and more attention due to its rising concerns. The study highlights the different drugs and treatment measures discovered by the scientists and researchers through cancer research. It also identifies the potential challenges faced by them in executing the research. The collection of exact data regarding cancer patients and such emerge as an important issue in cancer research. The study provides information about the types of cancer (as lung, pancreatic and liver cancer) evident in majorly across the world. It also provides with the details of the probable reasons for occurrence of cancer and their treatment processes relating to the tumor suppressor genes. Thus, this report can be held helpful in developing a good idea about the cancer research.

Cancer is a highly concerning disease across the world. Reports depicted around 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosis in women in US by the year 2015. There are 60,290 cases of non-invasive breast cancer and 2350 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosis in men by the year 2015. 83% ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and 12% lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) are evident through studies. It attracted major interest towards cancer research in US and across the world (Cancer.org, 2015).

Janda et al. (2009) asserted the variety of risk factors for cancer occurrence with most of the factors being preventable. Tobacco, diet, UV radiation, infections and body composition are the main risk factors leading to cancer. Over 16 types of cancer is seen to be caused by smoking leading to around a 5^th of all the deaths related cancer across the world. Infection contributes considerably to the risk of cancer. An unhealthy diet leading to obesity and overweight is also a big factor causing cancer. Sin melanoma is highly affected by the exposure to UV radiation. It causes skin cancers as keratinocyte, which is one of the most common types of cancer evident in human population. It is rarely fatal, yet it imposes significant burden of morbidity and economic expense (Begley & Ellis, 2012).

Cancer research works are seen to focus on the improvement of understanding of the development and spread of cancer. It also lays the foundation for other relevant researches. Areas of drug discovery and development, early detection and imaging, prevention, surgery and radiotherapy are eminent to draw the major attention of cancer research. The oesophageal cancers and pancreatic cancers still bear very low survival rates thus attracting considerable attention from the cancer research (van den Berg et al. 2012). The efforts applied towards cancer research in US are fragmented and uncoordinated largely.

Cancer research

It is evident from studies that the ability of prevention, detection and treating cancer shows significant progress. Cancer research activities as efficient cancer screening, early detection methods, targeted and improved cancer therapies, interventions, and a marked decline in the use of tobacco among the American population contributes greatly to the progress (Siegel, Naishadham & Jemal, 2013). This has led to a longer survival of the cancer patients in America due to early diagnosis and relevant treatment accordingly.

Since the disease of cancer involves a group of diseases due to an abnormal cell growth, the drug for cancer needs to be specifically efficient in targeting the cells affected by cancer. Studying about the risk factors or causative reasons for cancer, it is evident that the smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity due to dietary and physical activity issues and infection are the major factors causing cancer. The genetic defects also accounts for around 5% of the cancer incidences (DeSantis, Naishadham & Jemal, 2013). The medical and research communities along with the policy makers varies substantially in terms of knowledge and perceptions about the risk of cancer and benefits of the research conducted on cancer.

As depicted by several studies in US currently 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women (40%) of the population of US is expected to be diagnosed with cancer. Gapstur & Thun (2010) opined that assessment of cancer risk by the common people is lower than average due to the tendency of not intending to feel vulnerable. It leads to a concerning misperceiving of the risk for cancer. A variation in the risk of cancer is evident among the diverse population with a marked influence of fear and emotions of individuals along with the difficulty in understanding the numerical information. As per the survey conducted by National Science Foundation Study in 2010, the very little understanding of basic concepts of science is a major concern in respect to cancer research. The strong public support towards the improvement of cancer and biomedical research is evident in US. Janda et al. (2010) highlighted the best status of the generation, application and dissemination of the advances made by the research.

The cancer research programs bring about significant advances in the understanding of cancer by the common mass. Identification of viral oncogenes (v-srcI, erbB and v-myc) causing cancer is led through cancer research (Raab-Traub, 2013). Research enabled the gene transfer mechanism between mammalian cells, which helped in confirming the presence of oncogenes in human body. The research on cancer is useful in identifying the tumor suppressor genes that participates considerably in several types of cancer. Oncogenesis process and extensive research on cellular mechanism of it is encouraged by the increase in rates of DNA mutation in the cancer cells. Lopez-Serra & Esteller (2012) pinpointed the silencing of the tumor suppressor genes and DNA maintenance genes by modifying the DNA regions controlling cellular expression with addition of a methyl group, the process being called promoter methylation. This is an active topic of the cancer research till date. It depicts the targeting for potential agents that acts therapeutically to treat cancer.

Benefits of cancer research

With the advanced and high throughput technologies available in the field of medical research these days, the cancer research is able to find out the molecular basics of normal and cancer cells through sequencing a human genome (Mali et al. 2013). It enabled the identification of the path through which the cancer cells deregulate the normal cell processes.  The contribution of the surrounding tissues and cells to development of cancer is brought to the forefront through cancer research. Mechanisms used by cancer cells to evade the immune system’s detection and destruction process are revealed by the cancer research. It identified the significant information that specific interactions between host tissues and tumor cells determine the sites of metastasis (Baccelli et al. 2013).

It helped largely in the bringing up of several clinical interventions. The advanced technologies enable the development of 3D cultures and facilitate its refinement. It helps in the identification and understanding of the tumor cell architectures, which assist in investigating the interactions between cancer cells and extracellular matrix along with other cells. Begley & Ellis (2012) highlighted the potential of these systems to aid in the oncology drug-development process for treating cancer.

Cancer is expected to become the leading cause of death crossing the heart diseases. Demographic shifts in US poses strong challenge to the progress of the cancer research activities. The enormous scale of cancer disease, high complexity associated with it and its highly adaptable nature pose eminent challenge to the cancer research (Kipps, Tan & Kaye, 2013). The different subtypes of cancer with distinct clinical features and susceptibilities to therapy also act as challenges to its research. There are several types of cancers, which remain undiagnosed til they reach the advanced stage. A high resistance to the treatment attempts is also visible in many cancers. These factors act eminently in obstructing and slow down of the progress to cancer research work.

Another important challenge faced in the course of cancer research is the problems of data collection. Gapstur & Thun (2013)  criticized the lack of records of the number of cancer cases that are diagnosed in US per year. Some of the US states depicts incompleteness in the cancer registry data. In order to collect, compile and disseminate relevant and necessary cancer data, about national incidence of the disease and mortality data for the year. The increasing population diversity of US is another major challenge in this respect. The national effects face the challenge of identifying the population groups by culture, race or ethnicity for the research and other associated purpose (Siegel et al. 2011).

Challenges faced in cancer research

With the increasing aging population of US, the country faces higher risk of cancer incidence. It is because the cancer disease is revealed in the malignant stage in mostly the older age of humans. The projected doubling of the cancer incidence among the minorities is a strong restriction to cancer research. The adversity of screening methods for detecting most of the cancer types leads to the slowdown of cancer research. Massad et al. (2013) identified the lung, brain, pancreatic and liver cancers as the eminent types of cancers that lack adequate detection and treatment methods. The slow pace of the cancer research is able to grab attention of the speed up the cancer research, which is essential to move the relevant data regarding the cancer studies from laboratory to clinical application. Although the cancer research is efficient to culture cells especially the cancerous ones yet it poses the issue of variation in the cancer cells grown in a single layer from the cells in tumors (Gapstur and Thun, 2011).

Conclusion:

The current assignment thus provides a detail insight about the various aspects and status of cancer. By highlighting the advantages of cancer research, and delivering the information to the mass on a public and large scale can prove highly beneficial for the cancer researchers. It help greatly in understanding of cancer details and based on it producing new drugs to treat cancer and its associated health issues. However, serious challenges are also identified. Thus, it can be concluded that the study produces a good insight on cancer research.

References

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Begley, C. G., & Ellis, L. M. (2012). Drug development: Raise standards for preclinical cancer research. Nature, 483(7391), 531-533

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Kipps, E., Tan, D. S., & Kaye, S. B. (2013). Meeting the challenge of ascites in ovarian cancer: new avenues for therapy and research. Nature Reviews Cancer, 13(4), 273-282

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Mali, P., Yang, L., Esvelt, K. M., Aach, J., Guell, M., DiCarlo, J. E. & Church, G. M. (2013). RNA-guided human genome engineering via Cas9.Science, 339(6121), 823-826

Massad, L. S., Einstein, M. H., Huh, W. K., Katki, H. A., Kinney, W. K., Schiffman, M. & Lawson, H. W. (2013). 2012 updated consensus guidelines for the management of abnormal cervical cancer screening tests and cancer precursors. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 121(4), 829-846

Raab-Traub, N. (2012). Novel mechanisms of EBV-induced oncogenesis.Current opinion in virology, 2(4), 453-458

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