Cure For Cancer - Assignment

Running head: CURE FOR CANCER
Cure For Cancer
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CURE FOR CANCER
According to this, nurse
leaders at all levels must
a) The selective toxicity of anticancer drugs
The selective toxicity of drugs for cancer refers to the toxicity of the anticancer drugs
towards diseased or cancer cells and non-toxic towards the healthy cells. Those drugs that
have specific targets are efficient in killing the cancer cells but some cancer cells develop
resistance for the same drug to which once it was susceptible because of genetic changes
where anticancer drugs possesses toxicity towards healthy cells (Liu et al. 2015). There are
several drug toxicity mechanisms such as toxicity specific to the target and knowing the
mechanism of action will help the cancer patients to avoid side effects of the drugs such as
alkylating agents can damage cells by inhibiting DNA synthesis but alongside damage the
bone marrow leading to white blood cell cancer (leukemia) when the dose of these alkylating
agents are higher and the patient develops a risk of developing leukemia after 10 years of
treatment (Poganitsch-Korhonenet al. 2017). Antibiotics such as anthracyclines act as
antitumor drugs by interfering with DNA replication but can cause heart damage when given
at high doses (McGowan et al. 2017). Before allocating the drugs for cancer therapy it must
go through clinical trials to understand its potential. Drugs are evaluated for its antitumor
activity at low concentrations in animal models but do not assure its activity in humans,
therefore, drugs with efficacy to improve the survival rate of treatment in animal models may
show anticancer activity in humans. Patients require drugs that kill cancer cells at low
concentrations and leave the healthy cells unaffected (López-Lázaro, 2015). Therefore it is
important to understand that a drug that is effective in cancer treatment of rodents will have
the ability to kill cancer cells selectively (Calderon-Montano, Burgos-Moronand and Lopez-

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Lazaro 2014). To avoid non-specificity of drugs leading to a reduction in survival rate they
must be targeted toward specific sites infected with cancerous cells.
b) Limitations of chemotherapy and ways to reduce them
Chemotherapy is advantageous over other therapies for cancer treatment because it
can spread throughout the body killing extensive cancers but it comes with limitations
including side effects, resistance to the chemotherapeutic drugs and require a combination of
therapies (Liu, H., Lv, L. and Yang, K., 2015). A study shows that cellular senescence ceases
proliferation of cancer cells whereas these dead cells are associated with a pro-inflammatory
secretory phenotype thereby exhibiting adverse side effects (Demaria et al. 2017). Side
effects of these drugs limited chemotherapy and the symptoms included weakness and fatigue
ranking highest followed by headache, vomiting, hair loss, diarrhea, abdominal cramps,
memory loss in patients provided chemotherapy for breast and cervical cancer. Side effects
vary among different cancer types (Aslam et al. 2014).
Cancer cells gain resistance through a variety of mechanisms - firstly through the
reduction in the drug build-up of drugs and its increased export, altered target sites fro drug
and molecules for signal transduction, increased repair mechanism of DNA after being
induced by the drug and finally escaping apoptosis (Ramos and Bentires-Alj, 2015).

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Figure 1: Several mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy. This figure shows
decreased activation of prodrugs intracellularly or its increased inactivation, alterations in the
molecular structures of the transporters for the drugs, abnormal cell death and autophagy can
develop resistance to anticancer drugs.
(Image retrieved from Ramos and Bentires-Alj, 2015)
The transporters of anticancer drugs belong to the ABC transporters that is ATP-
binding cassette that facilitate the transport of biomolecules along with drugs in one direction
and ATP hydrolysis provides the energy to transport these molecules against the
concentration gradient. This forms a defense mechanism for selective entry into both normal
and abnormal cells but overexpression of these transporters can develop resistance to various
cytotoxic agents specifically for chemotherapy, for instance, a transporter called P-
glycoprotein when overexpressed in cancer cells causes resistance to chemotherapeutics such
as anthracyclins and actinomycin D by effluxing the drug out of the cells leading to
chemoresistance (Nanayakkara et al., 2018).