The therapeutics market is a huge market that incorporates a wide range of different medications, devices, tools and more. The term is often used synonymously with cancer therapeutics but can refer to a very wide selection of different treatments for different illnesses. In either case, this is a growing market with many new innovations on the horizon.
The term therapeutics refers to all branches of medicine that involve the treatment of disease. Of course, this is a very broad subject matter and includes a large selection of different medications, different tools and more. This is a growing market as more and more treatments for a wide range of diseases are being discovered.
In particular, the term therapeutics is often used synonymously with cancer therapeutics. Cancer therapeutics are therapeutics that relate to treating cancer in particular and this is an area that sees particular growth and development as newer and more advanced treatments are discovered. One particularly interesting field that will drive the market forward in the coming months and years, is the use of personalized treatments for cancer.
Personalized Cancer Treatments
Personalized medicine is more and more becoming a popular concept and of course this extends to personalized anticancer medicine. The idea of personalized anticancer therapy and other personalized medicine is of course to tailor the treatments and the interventions to that individual specifically.
This applies to breast cancer in particular, and this was one of the first areas to start using personalized anticancer therapy. Breast cancer is a widespread condition which can be treated with various different drugs all of which have varying levels of success. One of the factors that affect the type of breast cancer drugs that work best of course is the individual patient who is going through the cancer.
Now, personalized anticancer therapy is able to use various tests that are based on genetics and on proteomics and this then allows for the more measured use of particular drugs. This is still a young technology, and as the technologies progress and improve, oncologists will have the ability to prescribe treatments that are specific to individuals and this will result of course in better effectiveness while avoiding wasting time and avoiding any potential unpleasant side effects or interactions.
By using personalized anticancer therapy, it is also possible to see which medications are least likely to have severe negative effects. This then means time and money saved for the health organization, and it means discomfort and distressed prevented for the patient. Every case of illness is in fact unique and varies depending on the individual. If you look at the content of our blood, then you will see that we all have different substances to different degrees. Our blood pressure, viscosity and more will vary.
Likewise, our genetic code is very different and our cells are unique and this will lead to cancer being a very individualized disease. Every tumor is based on damage to the DNA which then is multiplied as the cells divide. This results in each tumor having a range of distinct features and characteristics and the specific damage to the DNA, as well as how far it has spread and where it is located will vary. By looking at things such as the proteins in the breasts, it is possible to use personalized anticancer treatment in order to predict the impact of certain genes on a cancerous cell.
These proteins provide the structures of the tissue of the breast and the tumors themselves so they can tell us lots about the nature of the damage – thus using biomarkers to identify those proteins is a very good idea. Rarely does one size fit all, and this is particularly true in the case of cancers and breast cancer. By treating each case individually, it is possible to have a much higher success rate as well as saving time and money and preventing nasty side effects. One point five million people in the US are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and over 550,000 die from the disease. Thus, any treatment that can improve these numbers is highly important and should be developed further.
Other Examples of Therapeutics
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Many other medicines and approaches can also fall under the heading of therapeutics. For instance, the use of medicines for depression, replacement therapies for thyroid disorders, anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis: all these things are examples of therapeutics. Therapeutics can also refer to tools and equipment that can help patients to cope with disease. For instance, consider CPAP.
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or ‘CPAP’, is an intervention used to treat obstructive apnea (a condition where patients cease breathing during the night due to a blocked throat) and snoring. The way this works is via a machine that continuously blows air down the patients throat while they sleep. The purpose of this is not to aid their breathing however (as you would be forgiven for assuming), but rather to force open their trachea by ‘blowing’ it open. For example then, should your windpipe close over due to the weight of your neck, having the continuous air will then increase the pressure inside and so allow it to remain open. This then allows the patient to breath normally without blockages causing them to sleep noisily or to prevent them breathing properly.
As you can see then, the therapeutics market is a large and varied one that incorporates a range of different types of products, services and treatments. As breakthroughs such as gene doping and personalized treatments develop, even more treatments will be available ensuring that the market continues to grow. And sadly, at the current time of writing, it would appear that the rate of illness among humankind is not slowing down… but rather speeding up.
