Understanding The Benefits Of Opioid Agonists In Suppressing Leukemia

Many patients have blood cancer, and traditional methods of treatment involve chemotherapy. This is not a suitable option for elderly patients, and the outcome is usually poor in most cases. Experts feel that there is a need to develop targeted therapies that can work better in such patients who are not able to undergo chemotherapy.

Understanding The Benefits Of Opioid Agonists In Suppressing Leukemia

In recent studies, it was shown that opioid receptor agonists were successful in suppressing the AML cells in cancer-affected patients. Especially OPA1 showed a good effect in this regard, and experts are hopeful about using this in the near future to treat cancer patients. This is already approved by FDA, and it is used for diarrhea treatment.

Experts are now confident that opioid agonists have some therapeutic potential in dealing with leukemia. Not only that but it can also be used in other cancer treatments when the molecular mechanisms are similar.

Many people suffer from blood cancer in the US, and it is a very common type of cancer. While detecting cancer is a big challenge in the early stages as most people appear normal until the disease progresses further. In most cases, the detection happens at a later stage, and this has a huge impact on the final outcome. Most elderly patients are not able to recover from this illness, and they also suffer a lot due to the existing treatment methods.

Even though chemotherapy is an excellent option to treat various types of cancer, it comes with its own disadvantages. It weakens the body, and many healthy people also suffer side effects due to this treatment. If the patient is suffering from other comorbid conditions, things can worsen further, and doctors may have to slow down the dosage or stop the treatment for some duration. Even in kids, this treatment is not recommended as they usually have a weak immune system.

However, there are no better methods available at the moment, and experts feel that new methods are likely to emerge in the near future. The targeted approach to handle cancer cells will be the best option as this will have fewer side effects, and the outcome will be better in this situation. In most conventional treatments like radiation and chemotherapy, the healthy cells surrounding the cancer cells also get damaged, and the body suffers from shock. This can weaken the immune system, and the patients are put on immune suppressants for a long period.

In this situation, cancer patients become more vulnerable to other infections. Apart from that, they also suffer from various side effects, which can last for many months after the treatment. The overall duration for cancer treatment is around one year, and the side effects can last for more than one year in some cases. For this reason, a targeted approach will be a better option to control the growth of cancer in most patients.

When it comes to elderly patients, new methods of treatment should focus on slowing the growth of cancer cells so that the patients can survive for a longer duration. Apart from that, it gives enough time for the patient to handle the stress from the treatment. The body will be in a better position to cope with the illness when the growth of cancer cells is slowed down without causing side effects.

The new methods of treatment will open different options for doctors to treat blood cancer patients. The study has shown that innovative methods of treatment can work to treat various other types of cancer without causing too many side effects. In this way, the outcome will improve even in elderly patients with blood cancer.