I have some ideas on possibilities of new treatments for cancer, where can I study more about it?

Question

I really know very little about the topic, but feel we are approaching the problem completely wrong.

Some of my ideas include:
1. Cutting off resource distribution (through blood vessels or other methods) to cancerous cells, essentially starving them.
2. Chemically neutralizing the "message" that tells cells to undergo cell division.
3. This one is way beyond us, but I wonder if we could ever engineer a virus to attack cancerous cells, since they would easily work on a molecular level with the DNA.
4. Triggering cell suicide somehow based on the time it takes them to divide
5. A few more that I currently consider to be unlikely...


Does anybody know where I can study more about this, and does anybody have any more ideas?

Answer 1

1. The problem is with this idea is that you're assuming that all cancer cells are in the same general region of the body (stationary tumor). If you were to block the blood flow to a particular part of the body, you are very likely to destroy the surrounding tissue which could be lethal.

A couple of ideas that you mentioned deal with the study of "Apoptosis." You could also read into "oncogenes" if you're intersted in this subject area.

The best way to research a topic like this is to use a site like medline.com or pubmed.com. These sites are databases that allow you to search articles that pertain to scientific topics. You should also check the box that says "review articles" because those are the articles that explain topics simply without the technique jargon.

it's cool to see someone who's willing to actually make a difference. keep it up.

Answer 2

1. I would not advise. The vessels carry nutrients to these cells, but they also remove toxic byproducts. One needs the circulation.
2. This is an excellent idea and people working on it. Genetic programming is a way to go. We probably will see some results in near 20-40 years.
3. Oh this is a way to go. Great idea! Similar in technology to the #2 only using a carrier agent.
4. Not bad. One of the options if we can’t do #2 and #3. Again the same or similar technology.

Genetics and oncology are the keywords pointing to the field of study. There quite a few basic disciplines you will need to enter this field seriously. As you navigate between them you will pick up the additional fields.

Great ideas.

Have fun.

Answer 3

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/
try this it is the uk charity for cancer research. i hope that is a good start.