Q. What are the biggest areas of ongoing research in oncology?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
The biggest areas of ongoing research in oncology include immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and the development of new technologies. Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer. It works by targeting specific molecules or processes on cancer cells that help them grow and divide. Targeted therapy targets specific molecules within a tumor cell, such as the proteins that help cancer cells grow, survive and spread. Finally, researchers are also looking into developing new technologies for early detection and diagnosis of cancers as well as improved treatments including gene modification therapies, nanomedicine approaches as well as combination treatments like immunotherapy coupled with other drug therapies. In addition to these main areas of focus for research in oncology there are many sub-areas such as personalized medicine tailored to individual patients based upon their genetic makeup; epigenetic studies which look at how environment influences expression of genes; stem cell research; imaging and biomarker development; better understanding of mechanisms driving metastasis and furthering our knowledge about how certain tumors have surprised us in terms of their resistance/sensitivity towards certain therapeutic interventions – even when they originate from same anatomical sites or represent similar histological entities.. All these will contribute to improving outcomes in healthcare related to this important field.