Oncology research is about understanding what causes cancer, how it can be prevented, and how it can be treated once it has been diagnosed. Cancer arises when our own normal cells starts dividing uncontrollably and thereby creates a mass of cells (tumor). The tumor cells do not perform their normal functions, and puts pressure on the rest of our organs, especially when it is spreading out throughout the body (metastasis). There are almost as many types of cancer as there are organs, and each cancer develops different from the other. Even the same type of cancer develops very different from person to person. Researchers have for many years sought to find overlaps between patients in order to treat everyone the same way. Only recently, it has been accepted that each patient needs to be treated individually with personalized cancer therapy. One of the major recent discoveries has been the usage of our own immune system to fight cancer, which received the Nobel Price in 2018.
We have learned a great deal about cancer, but there are still much more to be done. Some of the research topics within oncology include:
- Clinical studies to determine risk factors for developing cancer, efficacy of new treatments, and side effects of cancer drugs
- Basic biology of cancer cells using 2D, 3D, and organoid culture systems (what makes cancer cells different from normal cells?)
- Target screening to find genes and/or proteins that are expressed differently in the tumor cells compared to normal cells.
- Drug screening to find new treatment possibilities using already existing drugs or new small molecules.
- Personalized medicine & immunotherapy
We welcome researchers to submit articles in all fields relating to cancer research.
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