Differences between chemotherapy drugs and targeted drugs

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Compared to chemotherapy, which uses more specific targeted drugs, the side effects of targeted therapies are also different from chemotherapy.

1. What is targeted drug therapy?

Targeted therapy is considered a therapy that affects damaged genes or proteins, the tissue environment that helps cancer cells to proliferate and grow. Depending on the type of treatment, targeted therapy will cause specific side effects affecting the skin, hair and nail area. These side effects are usually caused by medications that interfere with the normal growth of tissues.
Currently, there are many targeted therapies that are introduced into medicine for clinical use to treat cancer specifically as well as achieve high efficiency and reduce serious side effects. Targeted therapies include:
Hormone therapies Signal transduction inhibitors Gene expression inhibitors Apoptosis inducers angiogenesis inhibitor Immunotherapies. Targeted drugs in cancer are divided into two main categories: monoclonal antibodies and small molecule target drugs. The use of nomenclature for targeted drugs will mainly depend on the type of drug and their target cell target. Specifically:
Monoclonal antibodies: Targeted drugs are monoclonal antibodies often ending in "-mab". Small-molecule Targeted Drugs: Small-molecule-targeted drugs usually end in "-ib" because they are protein inhibitors in nature.

2. What is chemotherapy in cancer?

Chemotherapy is a method used to treat cancer. Cancer chemotherapy usually uses one or more anticancer (cytotoxic) drugs. Chemotherapy is considered a part of standard cancer therapy.
Using chemotherapy can completely cure cancer or can also reduce and prolong the patient's life. However, to achieve high efficiency, cancer chemotherapy needs to be combined with other cancer treatment methods such as surgery, radiation therapy, heat therapy...
Chemotherapy drugs have the effect of killing cells. rapid cell growth, this is considered a typical feature of cancer cells in the body. However, because of this, cancer chemotherapy will also harm normal cells with a rapid growth cycle in the patient's body such as cells in the bone marrow, hair follicles or digestive system,. ... Thereby causing side effects for the body such as: marrow failure, gastrointestinal mucosal inflammation or hair loss.

3. Difference between chemotherapy drugs and target drugs

3.1 Differences in mechanism of action
The mechanism of action of traditional chemotherapy drugs is to cause cancer cell toxicity in the body by inhibiting cell division. Cancer chemotherapy drugs often act non-specifically on rapidly dividing cells, including cancer cells and normal tissue cells. Therefore, the mechanism of action of cancer chemotherapy drugs can:
Induce nucleotide alkylation; interferes with base pairing of DNA, which in turn leads to DNA strand breaks and stops DNA replication; Topoisomerase inhibitors prevent DNA strand twisting. Alkaloids vinca and Taxanes will interfere and affect the function of microtubules necessary for cell division; Anti-metabolites (antimetabolites) block the formation and use of nucleotides necessary for DNA replication. The mechanism of action of targeted drugs in cancer is to prevent the progression and proliferation of cancer cells by interfering with specific molecules necessary for tumor growth in the human body. sick. Some of these molecules may be present in normal tissues but are normally mutated or overexpressed.
For example, for leukemia cells, the earliest targeted drugs used were direct antibodies and leukemia cells. Because CD20 is also present on normal lymphocytes, the immune function of these cells will be affected during targeted therapy.

3.2 Varies in side effects affecting patients
For cancer chemotherapy: This method often causes a range of side effects related to infection, body weakness or changes in blood composition patient's body. For targeted drug therapy: When applying this therapy in cancer treatment, it is common for patients to experience problems related to hair, nails, skin, and eyes. The skin becomes dry and itchy, intense scratching leads to cracking, sensitivity to the sun makes other activities more painful and difficult.
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