The difficulties in cancer treatment

Abstract

Cancer is clearly the most deadly disease in the developed world as one in three people develop cancer during their lifetime. The cure for cancer is like the Holy Grail since most of the existing treatments are not effective enough to provide full protection from this disease. In recent years the burgeoning of sophisticated genomic, proteomic and bioinformatics techniques has made it possible for us to get a glimpse of the intricate interplay of numerous cellular genes and regulatory genetic elements that are responsible for the manifestation of cancerous phenotypes. With the use of modern genomic technologies we are now beginning to understand the enormous complexity of cancer. However there are few success stories as far as the treatment of cancer is concerned. For instance the treatments of leukemia and lymphoma have been established and proved to be satisfactory. Despite occasional successes the treatment for most cancers is still a long way from reality. In this editorial, we have addressed several reasons for the difficulties in cancer treatment.