Exploiting the architecture of cancers may lead to their destruction
After making a diagnosis of cancer, clinicians have a number of treatment options. Most of these involve coordinating multiple attacks on the tumour using an arsenal of cancer-killing therapies. Chemotherapy, where toxic drugs are used to specifically kill cancer cells, is a very powerful weapon in this arsenal. It is extremely effective in treating some cancers, such as testicular cancer and Hodgkin's Disease, but works poorly in other cancer types. Although the reasons for these different responses are complex, one of the known limitations for solid tumours is that sometimes killer drugs injected into the bloodstream are not delivered efficiently to the tumour tissue, and even if they do reach their target, are not retained long enough to administer their lethal hit...