Dr. Manishi Bansal

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy is a newer type of cancer treatment that uses drugs or other substances to more precisely identify and attack cancer cells, usually while doing little damage to normal cells. Targeted therapy is a growing part of many cancer treatment regimes.

Unlike standard chemotherapy, targeted therapy drugs work differently. These drugs target certain parts of cancer cells that make them different from other cells, like certain proteins or genes (DNA) that make them different from normal cells. These gene changes might cause the cell to make too much of a certain protein, which in turn might make the cell grow and divide too quickly.

Targeted drugs target on these cellular changes that make cancer cells different.

Many different types of targeted therapies are used to treat cancer, like rituximab, panitumumab, imatinib, dasatinib, etc. They are very safe and highly effective.