Breast cancer is a devastating diagnosis for any family that has been affected by the disease. Similarly, treatment can be equally as devastating and difficult for the person affected by breast cancer. But doctors may have found a new method of treating breast cancer that can decimate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.
In the first experimental trial of its kind, doctors dropped a "smart bomb" on breast cancer cells which resulted in the destruction of the unhealthy cells. The smart bomb delivers a dose of medication that is lethal to tumor cells but does not affect healthy ones. Doctors used the experimental drug on 1,000 women with advanced stages of breast cancer and the experimental drug extended the time by several months that the women lived without their cancer getting worse.
Not only did the drug keep the cancer from getting worse, it also appeared to extend lives. For example, after two years 65% of the women in the study that received the experimental treatment survived compared to just 47% of those women who received standard cancer treatment. Besides extending lives and killing cancer cells, the other biggest selling point of the new treatment is that it is less toxic than other treatments and has fewer side effects.
