During the beyond 250 years, we have seen numerous milestone inventions in our endeavors to gain ground against cancer, a burden known to mankind for millennia.
This course of events shows a couple of key achievements throughout the entire existence of cancer research.
- 1775: Chimney Soot & Squamous Cell Carcinoma
- 1863: Inflammation & Cancer
- 1882: The First Radical Mastectomy to Treat Breast Cancer
- 1886: Inheritance of Cancer Risk
- 1895: The First X-Ray
- 1898: Radium & Polonium
- 1902: Cancer Tumors & Single Cells with Chromosome Damage
- 1903: The First Use of Radiation Therapy to Cure Cancer
- 1909: Immune Surveillance
- 1911: Cancer in Chickens
- 1915: Cancer in Rabbits
- 1928: The Pap Smear
- 1932: The Modified Radical Mastectomy for Breast Cancer
- 1937: The National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- 1937: Breast-Sparing Surgery Followed by Radiation
- 1941: Hormonal Therapy
- 1947: Antimetabolites
- 1949: Nitrogen Mustard
- 1950: Cigarette Smoking & Lung Cancer
- 1953: The First Complete Cure of a Human Solid Tumor
- 1958: Combination Chemotherapy
- 1960: The Philadelphia Chromosome
- 1964: A Focus on Cigarette Smoking
- 1964: The Epstein-Barr virus
- 1971: The National Cancer Act
- 1976: The DNA of Normal Chicken Cells
- 1978: Tamoxifen
- 1979: The TP53 Gene
- 1984: HER2 Gene Discovered
- 1984: HPV 16 & 18
- 1985: Breast-Conserving Surgery
- 1986: HER2 Oncogene Cloning
- 1993: Guaiac Fecal Occult Blood Testing (FOBT)
- 1994: BRCA1 Tumor Suppressor Gene Cloning
- 1995: BRCA2 Tumor Suppressor Gene Cloning
- 1996: Anastrozole
- 1997: Rituximab
- 1998: NCI-Sponsored Breast Cancer Prevention Trial
- 1998: Trastuzumab
- 2001: Imatinib Mesylate
- 2003: NCI-Sponsored Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT)
- 2006: NCI’s Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR)
- 2006: Gardasil
- 2009: Cervarix
- 2010: The First Human Cancer Treatment Vaccine
- 2010: NCI-Sponsored Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST)
- 2011: Ipilimumab
- 2012: NCI-Sponsored PLCO Cancer Screening Trial
- 2013: Ado-Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1)
- 2014: Analyzing DNA in Cancer
- 2014: Pembrolizumab
- 2014: Gardasil 9
- 2015: NCI-MATCH Clinical Trial
- 2015: Talimogene Laherparepvec
- 2016: Cancer Moonshot℠
- 2017: Pediatric MATCH
- 2017: CAR T-Cell Therapies
- 2017: Tumor-Agnostic Approval for Pembrolizumab
- 2017: Genomic Profiling Tests
- 2018: TCGA PanCancer Atlas
- 2018: NCI-Sponsored TAILORx Clinical Trial
- 2018: Larotrectinib
- 2020: International Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes
Finding out that you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer can be one of the scariest moments of your life.
It can be hard to be optimistic. However, new technological developments in cancer treatment are helping more and more people to treat their cancer effectively and live longer, more fulfilling and healthier lives than ever before.
Following are some advanced technologies used in cancer treatment:
One of the best examples of new technology in cancer treatment is a new procedure called ChemoID.
With ChemoID, doctors take small samples from a patient’s tumor.
ChemoIDs can also help patients save huge amounts of money that would be wasted on drugs that don’t help them much.
Intensely Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is a special type of radiation therapy that uses a linear accelerator platform.
In IMRT, a computer-controlled linear accelerator directs a high dose of radiation in a controlled and appropriate volume and size at the patient’s tumor.
Another new technology in cancer treatment is image-guided radiation therapy (IMGT), which also uses linear accelerators.
IMGT allows for more precise radiation treatment because it uses technology that can detect the size and shape of tumors in the body.
Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy uses a device called a boar CT simulator that helps oncologists quickly create a three-dimensional map of the tumor and surrounding tissue.
Another technology, called high-dose brachytherapy, uses a catheter to direct radiation to cancer cells, allowing a direct dose to the tumor.
