The number one killer of this world today is cancer. A disease that starts when cells multiply rapidly within the body, growing into abnormal masses or tumors, it is indeed one of the toughest challenges against which much movement is taking place in the fight to understand possibly to treat. Through the ceaseless efforts put in by research workers, scientists, and physicians, every day does bring with it hope to fight this ghastly enemy. Let us observe a part of what looks quite new hope arising from revolutionary areas of treatment, in cancer care with immunotherapy forming the frontline rung on which there really can be a perfect example drawn from Indian ground.
We will also outline the work done by Dr. Vikesh Shah, one of the best immunotherapy doctors in Ahmedabad, leading in new ways for the treatment of cancer by getting the body to fight the disease through its own immune system.
What is Cancer?
Before the nitty-gritty of what the future will hold for treating cancer, understand what cancer essentially is. The main cause of cancer is uncontrolled growth and division of abnormal cells in the body. Eventually, such cells produce masses or tumors. Cells are generally produced by the body. Generally, in healthy cases, cells grow, multiply, and eventually die. It is not applicable to the cancer cases; there is a reason yet to be explained as for why the regulation events somehow elude them and they never seem to stop their division. Eventually, due to continuous growth that has been going on for a long time, a mass or a tumor is formed; with time, this mass would start invading adjacent tissues. If not treated, the cancer cells would metastasize to other parts of the body.
There are more than 100 types of cancer, and they are named according to where the disease started. Some of the most common include:
- Breast Cancer: Common in females. In this type of carcinoma, cells start multiplying silently in the breast.
- Lung Cancer: It kills the most, and these deaths are due to cancer because of smoking. It is a result of cancerous cells present in the lungs.
- Prostate Cancer: It occurs in the prostate, which is a small gland present in men that produces seminal fluid.
- Colorectal Cancer: It is in the colon or rectum and most people relate this to poor diet.
- Blood Cancer (Leukemia): This is an infection of the blood and the bone marrow. Here, the cells that form blood are produced.
- Skin Cancer (Melanoma): It develops as a result of sun exposure that promotes growth of skin cells which one cannot control.
Why Cancer Develops?
Cancer is a result of interaction among genetics, environment, and lifestyle. Most importantly, the leading causes of cancer are as follows
- Genetic Mutations: Our genes dictate how cells should grow, multiply, and die. In our case currently, the alterations or mutations in these genes cause cells to grow uncontrollably. Some of the genetic mutations are transmitted while others result from environmental factors over time.
- Environmental Factors: Long-term exposure to toxins, chemicals, and even irradiation can destroy the DNA in the cells. Examples of these factors include tobacco smoking that leads to lung cancer and when exposed to direct sun rays for many years, it causes skin cancer.
- Lifestyle Activities: A sedentary lifestyle combined with a poor diet and excess alcohol consumption might help improve the chances of acquiring the disease. Cancer, among them breast and colon cancer, is caused by being overweight or obese.
- Age: The risk of cancer develops as one gets older because the cells in any organ of the body begin to create mutations while they grow.
- Family History: Sometimes, there is heredity in some type of cancers. If a close relative has the disease, then your chances of getting it would be higher due to inherited causes.
Though these factors contribute to the high chances of acquiring cancer, it is important to note that some people develop it without risk factors. Early detection and new treatments increase the possibility of recovery.
How Does Cancer Affect the Body?
Unchecked multiplication of the cancerous cells may bring health disorders with it depending upon the type and location of cancer. The different ways through which the body could be affected includes local effects by the tumor by compressing other organs, blood vessels, or nerves, and pain, swelling, or inability to perform daily functions of the body. A brain tumor would lead to severe headaches, dimming of eyesight, or convulsions.
- Metastasis: The carcinoma cells can spread to other parts of the body, and so this cancer becomes difficult to treat. It is metastasis. For example, if cancers of the lungs spread to the bones, then it is metastatic lung carcinoma. Such conditions require complicated treatment.
- Immune System Suppression: These cancerous diseases, such as blood cancer, i.e., leukemia, can cause deficiencies of the immune system of the body that will weaken its strength to produce antibodies against infections.
- Symptoms: According to the type or even at the location of cancer, they consist of unexpected weight loss, fatigue, pain, changes in bowel movements, and even unusual bleeding or discharge.
Conventional Treatments for Cancer
Through the years, various treatments have been developed to combat cancer. Such treatments are developed to either prevent the growth of cancer cells, kill them, or reduce tumors. Some of the most common types of cancer treatments include:
- Surgery: Surgery is the likely first line treatment of cancer. It removes a tumor from your body, giving hope that this cancer is contained and not present in other bodies.
- Chemotherapy: It uses here very potent medicines that might remove the cancerous cells or diminish their multiplication. It is an extremely effective form of therapy but kills other healthy cells and thus results in side effects such as hair fall, nausea, and drowsiness.
- Radiation Therapy: This is the use of energy radiations that could kill cancer cells or simply reduce the size of tumors. It can be used as a single treatment or in combination with other treatments.
- Hormone Therapy: Some cancers rely on hormones to grow. Examples of such cancers are breast and prostate cancer. Hormone therapy finds a basis for its approach in blocking or changing the hormones that feed the cancer.
- Stem Cell Therapy: This is a source of destroyed bone marrow, mainly caused by cancers of the blood, such as leukemia.
Immunotherapy: Miracle Cure
The most exciting new advance in cancer treatment is immunotherapy, which uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer. The immune system is a group of organs, tissues, and cells that protect the body against invaders such as bacteria and viruses. At times, however, cancer cells evade the detection of the immune system. Immunotherapy enhances the ability of the immune system to detect and kill cancer cells.
There are different types of immunotherapy, including:
- Checkpoint Inhibitors: These drugs block the checkpoints in the immune system that cancer cells exploit to evade recognition. Blocking these checkpoints helps the immune system identify and destroy cancer cells better.
- CAR-T Cell Therapy: This technique is based on enhancing the body’s own immune component, such as T cells, to develop more sensitivity for targeting cancer. The enhanced immune cells are transferred back into the body to continue fighting with cancer.
- Monoclonal Antibodies: This is a portfolio of artificially generated molecules that direct themselves to some parts of cancer. When connected to these cells, these single monoclonal antibodies help kill them with the assistance of an immune system.
Immunotherapy has been applied to various kinds of cancers like melanoma, lung cancer, and blood cancers. In India, in the city of Ahmedabad, immunotherapy physician Dr. Vikesh Shah is famous. He treated many patients that were diagnosed to have advanced levels of cancer via his clinic, and he majored in the targeted immunotherapy that would not affect most cells in the body but rather targeted the body’s cells causing cancers.
Dr. Vikesh Shah and Advanced Cancer Treatments
With his experience in the immunotherapy field, Dr. Vikesh Shah pioneered to bring modern treatment for cancer into India. Today, this clinic is the best source of trust for those seeking the latest treatments for immunotherapy. The gigantic contribution by Dr. Shah towards making immunotherapy even more popular in India and enjoying success in it also helped bring a new hope to those suffering from almost impossible cancers.
The Vikesh Shah Clinic provides appropriate, individualized treatment as well as numerous choices for immunotherapy strictly based on an individual’s requirement for each given case. Conducting newer novel therapies resulted in increased survival in individuals who have advanced cancer that enabled them to have a much better life while living with a disease if attacked by it.
Tremendous progress has been made on earth in cancer therapy. With up-to-date modern technology, avant-garde research, and internationally renowned healthcare delivery, India will soon emerge as a premier high-quality center of cancer care to which people with cancer are pouring in from overseas for availing of relatively lower-cost treatment along with high state-of-the-art technology.
Except for these, the medical science prospered to give rise to some novel diagnostic equipment and treatments which would range from robotic surgery to precision radiation therapy and more AI-assisted treatments. The marked change was brought through the rapid growth in new technology adoption along with a steep increase in the accuracy, efficiency, and the patient-friendly approach towards the treatment of cancer in India.
Conclusion
There is much promise for the future of cancer treatment in India. Be it immunotherapy, personalized medicine, or precision oncology; be it stereotactic body radiotherapy, tumor-owning virus therapy, or advances like JCI-accredited centers; the doors are open more than ever for a cancer patient. Amongst many immunotherapy doctors in Ahmedabad, bringing superior treatments to this city, is Dr. Vikesh Shah. His clinic brings forth the latest advanced cancer care, and through his expertise, many patients are conquering their challenges with the disease.
Get in touch with us today to inquire further or for an appointment with one of our top physicians. Fighting cancer is never tough this way.