research and critical analysis

This discussion presents cancer, one of the major health problems today. In 2018, the cancer burden across the globe was 18.1 million new cases, with at least 9.6 million people dying from the disease. According to Meegan & O’Boyle (2022), one in six women and one in five men globally are forecasted to develop cancer at some point, with one in 11 women and one in eight men dying from cancer. The major types of cancer affecting the world with regards to the new cases of the disease are breast cancer and lung cancer, with at least 18.4 per cent (1.8 million) succumbing to lung cancer, thanks to the poor prognosis of lung cancer. These statistics show that cancer is a major health issue leading to millions of the global population annually. To minimize the number of deaths caused by cancer, such professionals as molecular biologists, chemical biologists, and medicinal chemists have endeavoured to discover and develop drugs that may be used to treat cancer. Chemotherapy has been found to be an extremely powerful tool in treating cancer, with current research focusing on developing new chemotherapy drugs. Undoubtedly, the availability and development of new and more effective oncology drugs are encouraging. The development of anticancer drugs has been challenged by the issue of drug relapse, resistance, and side effects. This is the problem that medical research needs to address if the lives of cancer patients are to be saved. Due to many types of cancer, there is no specific population that is targeted by the disease.

Mitigation

As pointed out earlier, chemotherapy is one of the most effective methods used in the treatment of cancer despite its side effects. According to Silaghi et al. (2022), chemotherapy seeks to kill cancer cells, which grow very fast. However, chemotherapy drugs tend to divide healthy cells as they destroy cancer cells. Such damage is associated with side effects such as hair loss, fatigue, and nausea. Fortunately, with the progression of cancer, science to manage and mitigate the unwarranted effects of chemotherapy has also witnessed significant growth. As pointed out earlier, one of the side effects of chemotherapy drugs is fatigue. Thus, patients should engage in regular exercise as a way of countering chemotherapy-induced fatigue. The exercise does not have to be intense, like going to the gym, but one may even take an evening walk, thus helping address the fatigue associated with chemotherapy drugs. In cases where the cancer patient experiences vomiting and nausea, it is important to take antiemetics drugs, which effectively eliminate the issue of nausea. Taking several small meals instead of large meals may help with nausea.

Recommendation

Resistance is manifested in virtually all effective anticancer drugs. Most patients portray either acquired or intrinsic resistance to chemotherapeutic treatment. Chemotherapy cannot be discounted as a recommendation to address the challenge of cancer, as it has tremendously helped save millions of lives across the globe. Indini et al. (2022) found that many cancer types tend to respond well to the “traditional” chemotherapy treatments such as antimitotic drugs, antimetabolites, topoisomerase inhibitors, intercalating drugs, and alkylating agents, although a few types of cancer can be cured completely using such treatment approaches. Due to the resistance of the cancer disease to chemotherapy treatment, this discussion also recommends using smart drug delivery systems (SSDS) to treat cancer. According to Silaghi et al. (2022), SSDS is a drug delivery system based on smart nano-carriers. In this regard, the system can deliver anticancer drugs to the specific target sites with less frequency of dosage in a more controlled manner, which tremendously reduces the side effects associated with conventional delivery systems of anticancer drugs.

References