Raphael Munchenbach

5/11/2018

Cohut, Maria. “Cancer: How Close Are We to Curing It?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 2 Mar. 2018, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321106.php.

In her article, Maria Cohut discusses a much anticipated scientific development: a cure for cancer. She begins by putting cancer into context, listing shocking statistics which help put the issue into perspective. Then, she lists some already known and widely used treatments for cancer. Then, she introduces the idea that other treatments, which are still being perfected, are currently in the works, and seek to better defeat the deadly illness. The first method which she discusses is immunotherapy, or the bolstering of the body’s immune system against cancer. She then lists a flaw in immunology: that certain more aggressive cancer cells tend to develop resistances against the body’s immune system. However, she then reassures her readers by presenting a study which discussed how scientists were able to work around the more powerful cancer cells, by blocking certain signaling pathways. The second method she discusses is therapeutic vaccination, which consists of injecting “therapeutic viruses” into the patient’s body, which are helped by artificial receptors to help the therapeutic virus identify and destroy the cancer cells. Cohut does recognize a possibly destructive downside to this method, that it is difficult to control, and the supposedly helpful viruses may also certain important components of the human body. She then states a way that scientists have found to mitigate this issue, through a bioresponsive scaffold system, which makes it easier for the treatment to be controlled. She then brings up a relatively new method: nanotechnology. These are very small particles which can be programmed to target cancer and ignore the rest of the body. However, as nanotechnology is fairly new, scientists do not know the full extent of its potential, or possible downsides which may arise from it. The fourth method she discusses is “starvation” of tumors, by preventing tumors from feeding on glutamine. As this method is fairly new and unexplored, scientists must conduct more research before formulating a definitive solution. The final method she discusses is epigenetics, which is the manipulation of gene expression to eliminate possible risks of cancer. However, this is apparently harder to do in a shorter term, emergency situation and is best used years in advance. Then, she ties it all together, saying that although these methods can seem promising, they are fairly new, and it won’t be for some time that they become viable for widespread usage. She ends on a positive note, however, that every day, our knowledge progresses and we have more ways of fighting this disease.

The impact on society of these methods is fairly obvious, as cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and it is the medical world’s utmost priority to find ways to combat it.  These new methods of cancer treatment have worlds of potential, and can be applied to fields even beyond the medical world. New breakthroughs such as nanotechnology seem to hold nearly unlimited potential, which brings humanity ever closer to defeating cancer.

The article has very clear strengths: it lists a variety of methods to potentially cure cancer, the contexts in which they are used, and any downsides or limitations of the treatment. This is all presented in well organized chunks, which allows readers to easily sift through each method and be certain of the proper location of these elements. She also very efficiently includes information directly from cancer researchers and studies in the field. However, Cohut’s article suffers from a lack of clarity. The language can seem oversaturated to the average reader, making it very difficult for one to follow the course of the article. Explanation for some of the more technical terms in the article would have been invaluable,  and would make the article easier to digest, and place every reader on equal footing when reading the article.