Читать книгу The Cancer Directory - Dr. Daniel Rosy - Страница 120

We have seen how surgery and radiotherapy are used to deal with disease that is localized in a particular area. But if the disease has spread, or metastasized, then the treatment has to reach all parts of the body to eliminate cancer cells wherever they have lodged. Such treatments are called ‘systemic’, as they go right round the system. Since the 1940s, around 150 drugs with anti-cancer effects have been developed. They act in various ways to destroy or slow down the growth of rapidly dividing cancer cells.

There are several ways in which different types of anti-cancer drugs work:

• by preventing the DNA in the cancer cell nucleus from being copied, a vital process for cell division and growth of the tumour

• by depleting the cancer cell of the building blocks for DNA so that fewer raw materials are available for DNA to replicate itself

• by preventing the binding of enzymes that enable the production of key protein molecules in the cancer cells

• by blocking protein synthesis, especially those that maintain healthy cell activity as well as cell division.