Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to target proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread.Quoted From: https://www.oregoncancer.com/targeted-therapy
"Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to target proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread. Cancer treatments that "target" cancer cells can offer an advantage of reduced cancer treatment-related side effects and improved outcomes. Doctors often use targeted therapy in combination with chemotherapy and other treatments.
How Does Targeted Therapy Fight Cancer?
There are different types of targeted therapy; however, most help treat cancer by interfering with specific substances, such as proteins and genes, that help tumors grow and spread throughout the body. Doctors often use targeted therapy, along with chemotherapy and other treatments.
Targeted therapies can:
Help the immune system destroy existing cancer cells
Block signals to cancer cells that tell them to grow and divide
Prevent cancer cells from living longer than normal
Signal the blood to stop creating blood vessels that a tumor needs to grow
Deliver cell-killing substances to cancer cells
Starve cancer of the hormones it needs to grow
Encourage cell death in cancer cells
Types of Targeted Therapies
Most targeted therapies are either small-molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies.
Small-molecule drugs are small enough to enter cells quickly and easily, so they become targets that are inside cells.
Monoclonal antibodies, also known as therapeutic antibodies, are proteins produced in the lab. These proteins attach to specific targets unique to cancer cells. Some monoclonal antibodies mark cancer cells so that they alert the immune system to destroy them. Other monoclonal antibodies can directly stop cancer cells from growing or cause them to self-destruct. Still, others carry toxins to cancer cells."
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