PARP Inhibitors - New Hope for Treating Cancer?

One of the great difficulties in treating cancer is controlling the reproductions of cancer cells and getting them to die. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells don't have natural lifespan. They grow and spread in an effort to survive much to a cancer patient's dismay. They also ignore the body's chemical message regulating cell reproduction and growth. Luckily, science is paving the way for better treatments for myeloma and other cancers.

I ran across a blog posting on PARP inhibitors and their role in inhibiting malignant cell reproduction and even inducing apoptosis (death) of cancer cells. As opposed to chemotherapy which ravages one's entire body, PARP is used as a focused molecular therapy. As my doctor puts it, many present treatment options are equivalent to using an atom bomb to kill a mouse. New ones use a BB gun to kill the mouse. Although the studies have focused on breast cancer, they may offer hope in treating a variety of cancers. From a website I visited, "studies suggest the drugs selectively inhibit cell proliferation and are active against a broad range of tumor types." This is crucial in treating myeloma and other cancerous cells - cancer cells are cellular reproduction gone haywire. They don't die like normal cells, hence the increase of plasma cell numbers in bone marrow.

A PARP article in the New England Journal of Medicine article also offers hope, and suggests the present procedures involving clinical trials need to be reviewed. This may lead to greater and faster access to new drugs.

Hope indeed. Oh, and no mice were harmed during the posting of this blog message.