Epigenetics and Cancer Medicine

Cancer Evolution and Research

Throughout history, countless causes of cancer have been proposed including: angering the gods, fermenting or acidic lymph, chronic irritation, trauma, and infection. From the Humoral theory in the middle ages to the discovery of DNA structure in the mid-20^th century, science has found many types and the causes of cancer. These theories stood unchallenged until when Galileo and Newton began to use the scientific method, which laid the foundations for the modern scientific study of disease.

Those theories and beliefs have evolved when you fast forward time nearly 200 years to 2012. And the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) identified more than 100 chemical, physical, and biological carcinogens (agents that cause cancer by damaging DNA or disrupting cell metabolism).

To identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure for cancer, the scientific community is indulged in research work all over the world. May it is research centers, institutes, companies, and hospitals, all contributions account a step by step progress against cancer.

Ranging from molecular bioscience to the clinical trials, Cancer research evaluates and compares applications of various Cancer treatments. Surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy and combined treatment modalities such as chemo-radiotherapy being such applications. The mid-1990s marks the shifting of clinical cancer research to therapies derived from biotechnology research, such as cancer immunotherapy and gene therapy.