Cancer Treatment Strategy-An Overview

Cancer is any disorder of cell growth that results in invasion and destruction of surrounding healthy tissues by abnormal cells, which have arisen from normal cells, whose nature is permanently changed. The exact mechanism through which a normal cell is transform to a tumor cell is still not clear and is considered as very complex in nature comprising of several steps though in recent years considerable advancement in knowledge have been obtained in molecular mechanisms, growth regulatory factors, environmental effects, diet and food habits etc. Tumors that remain localized can usually be cured by surgery or radiotherapy even when enormous. Cancer, still regarded as the most progressive and dreadful disease, is posing a great social and economical problem globally since it has been estimated that in the year 2005 about 10.9 million new cases have been registered while about 6.7 million people had died from cancer while the respective figures for Indian people might be about 1 million of new incidences and 6 lakh of deaths. Data from USA showed that an estimated death of about 5.5 lakh had occurred in 2005¹. The number of new cancer cases is also increasing globally at a fast rate.