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Leave a legacy by including a gift in your Will, starting a tribute page for a loved one, or funding a research grant for early-career cancer researchers driving clinical innovations.
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Recent advances in cancer treatment have led to the development of targeted therapies, which can give us a more precise approach to treating cancer. These treatments work differently from more traditional methods like chemotherapy, and they have opened new possibilities for many cancer types.
Our team is here to listen and support you.
Targeted therapy is a sophisticated treatment that focuses specifically on certain features of cancer cells. Unlike chemotherapy, these medications work by identifying and attacking specific molecular targets that help cancer cells grow and spread.
Your doctor can test your cancer cells to determine whether targeted therapy might be an option for you. Even different people with the same type of cancer may receive different treatments based on their test results.
Used to slow cancer growth, targeted therapy drugs circulate throughout the body, attacking targeted proteins or genes on the surface of cancer cells. These molecular targets help the drugs specifically seek out the cancer cells, while leaving surrounding healthy cells relatively untouched.
Targeted therapy differs from chemotherapy, which also seeks out cancer cells but does so by targeting rapidly dividing cells. This means that other healthy cells can also be damaged.
In certain cancer types, your doctor can test the cells to see whether they contain the particular molecular target the drugs are created to seek out. This is the reason some people with the same types of cancer will receive different types of treatment, based on the markers of their specific cancer.
Targeted therapy for cancer has proven successful in many instances, improving survival rates across different types of cancer, but it’s important to remember it doesn’t work for all cancers, or all people.
In Australia, targeted therapy is available for a range of different cancer types, including:
For most of these cancers, targeted therapy is available only when the cancer is advanced, although it is also available for some early-stage cancers.
Targeted therapy drugs are usually administered by an oncologist or haematologist. They’re delivered in cycles, with rest periods in between, and some can be prescribed over months, or even years.
Depending on the type of cancer you have and the specific targeted therapy you’re receiving, these drugs can be given in the following ways:
Even though targeted therapy is designed to minimise damage to healthy cells, it can still cause side effects in some people. Although, some people do not experience any side effects.
The side effects vary greatly depending on the dose and type of treatment you’re receiving, and could include:
Less commonly, some targeted therapy drugs can affect the way the heart, thyroid, liver or lungs work, or increase the risk of getting an infection.
It’s important that you talk to your doctor about any side effects, not only so that they can help you manage them, but also because some rare side effects from targeted cancer treatment, particularly those that impact your heart and lungs, can become serious or even life threatening.
Targeted therapies for cancer are drugs that seek out specific molecular targets in cancer cells – like proteins or genes on the cell’s surface – in order to attack those while leaving surrounding healthy cells unharmed.
Targeted therapy has improved the survival rate in several different types of cancer.
Depending on the type and stage of cancer you have, targeted therapy may be delivered in pill form, as an injection under the skin, or in an IV drip into your vein.
Your doctor will determine the correct length of treatment for your targeted therapy – sometimes this can be over the course of months or even years.
Targeted therapy for cancer works differently to chemotherapy and is sometimes used at the same time. Different types of cancer respond differently to different treatments, and your doctor will work with you to determine the course of action that is right for you.
