I would like to see the time when cancer vaccines will be administered in the maternity hospitals, Boris Dolgushin, Director of the Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Radiology of the Nikolai Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, told Sputnik.
While Boris Dolgushin hopes for a complete eradication of cancer, similar to how we've conquered many viral illnesses, he believes a more realistic approach is early detection and intervention to allow patients to live longer, healthier lives.
"Ideally, we'd cure cancer, but the best outcome is preventing it entirely," he stated.
Prevention is also developing. Ultimately, all treatments will converge on prevention, added the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
What Causes Cancer?
"All of us have cancer cells. According to scientific estimations, about 300 cancer cells appear in the body every second" Dolgushin explained.
Thanks to its control, defense and destruction systems, the body detects these intruders and destroys them. Except that from time to time, the system goes off the rails, allowing the disease to progress, he continued.
A New Technique on the Horizon
To combat this disease, the Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Radiology is exploring various approaches. One of them is called boron neutron capture therapy.
Russian specialists created a device that generates the epithermal neutrons required for this method. These particles interact with boron without causing harm to the body.
When neutrons come into contact with boron, a local reaction is triggered and destroys the two strands of DNA of the tumor cell, leading to its death.
The device is expected to arrive at the institution in December, and the first patients will be able to access this new treatment starting in 2025, Dolgushin said.