• Question: what is the most painless way to distribute drugs to cancer cells?

    Asked by Daniel to Ross, Robert on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Ross King

      Ross King answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Good question, Daniel, and one that is very important.

      Usually the pain that comes from cancer drugs is because of their side-effects. We get these side effects because often they are injected or swallowed as pills, which means the drugs travels all over the body and can act on many different cells.

      The best way to get rid of pain from cancer drugs would be to make sure that only the cancer drugs are targeted by the drug. We can do this in a few ways, and scientists are trying to work out which is best. Many new cancer drugs are much better, though, and they don’t cause as much pain as some of the older treatments.

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