Xanit International Hospital

Introduction

The Xanit Oncology Institute focuses on a very strong personalised patient care in its treatment of cancer.

Cancer treatment is generally lengthy and with our constant dedication and focus ensure access to and knowledge of the latest advances in a field of continuous development. Xanit Oncology offers maximum psychological support to patients paving the way towards a cure.

The Xanit Oncology Institute has the following units and treatments:

• Psychology Oncology
• Genetic counselling
• Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy, Hormonetherapy
• Treatment with radioactive isotopes. Hospitalization in a specially shielded room (Lead)
• External beam radiation: In Intensity Modulated (IMRT) and image-guided (IGRT)
• Radiosurgery and Stereotactic (Single Session)
• High-dose Brachytherapy (HDR) and low dose (LDR). Brachytherapy Combined
• Brachytherapy for Prostate using seed implant

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Our services

Integral cancer treatment

Carried out by means of a therapeutic plan set up by a multidisciplinary team, which includes staging, locoregional and systemic treatment, together with the follow up of solid tumours and lymphomas wherever their location.

The list of concrete and detailed services offered for every pathology is as follows:

• Cerebral Tumours.
• Radical treatment of malignous tumors with radiotherapy and radio chemotherapy.
• Complementary treatment of malignous operated tumors with radiotherapy and radio chemotherapy.
• Cranio spinal axis irradiation.
• Integral treatment of cerebral metastases.
• Head and Neck Tumours
• Non surgical treatment of first stage tumors by means of radical radiotherapy.
• Conservative treatment of the organ or function implied for advanced-stage tumors.
• Radical treatment of non operable advanced-stage tumors.
• Complementary radiotherapy and radio chemotherapy for operated tumors.
• Systemic and paliative radiotherapeutic treatment for recidivant or metastastic tumors.
• Thorax Tumours
• Radical radiotherapeutic treatment for first stage tumors.
• Pre-operatory and post-operatory chemotherapy for non microlithic lung cancer.
• Concurrent radio-chemotherapy of non microlithic stage IIIB cancer.
• Concurrent radio-chemotherapy of microlithic localized cancer.
• Therapeutical treatment of lung cancer due to relapse or disemination.
• Prophylactic cerebral irradiation in microlithic lung cancer.
• Breast Tumours
• Therapeutical and radiotherpeutical treatment for operable breast cancer.
• Integral cancer treatment for non operable breast cancer (locally advanced staging).
• Integral cancer treatment for diseminated breast cancer.
• Digestive Tumours
• Adjuvant chemotherapy treatment after surgery on colon, rectum and pancreas tumors.
• Adjuvant treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy for stomach cancer.
• Pre-operatory treatment for rectum cancer.
• Conservative treatment on the sphincter for in first stage rectal cancer.
• Non surgical treatment of anal canal cancer.
• Concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment on esophagus cancer.
• Radio-chemotherapy treatment of localized advanced stage páncreas cancer.
• Pre-operative treatment for liver metastases disseminated from colon cancer.
• Integral treatment of diseminated digestive cancer.
• Gastrointestinal sarcomas treatment.
• Urolologic Tumours
• Radiotherapy treatment of localizad prostate cancer.
• Adjuvant treatment for operable bladder cancer.
• Systemic treatment of locally advanced and metastasic bladder cancer.
• Systemic treatment of prostate cancer.
• Systemic treatment for testicular cancer.
• Gynaecologic tumours.
• Adjuvant chemotherapy treatment for operable ovary cancer.
• Integral treatment for non operable ovary cancer.
• Cervical cancer treatment with radiochemotherapy.
• Complementary radiotherapy treatment of endometrious cancer.
• Radiotherapy treatment of vulva and vagina cancer.
• Systemic treatment of gyneacologic disseminated cancer
• Bone and soft tissue Tumours
• Neoadjuvant and conservative treatment of osteosarcoma in the extemities.
• Radiotherapeutic treatment for localized sarcomas (adjuvant or neoadjuvant one).
• Adjuvant chemotherapy treatment for sarcomas present in operated soft tissues.
• Systemic treatment of diseminated tumors
• Hodgkin and non Hodgkin lymphomas
• Integral treatment of both pathologies
• Melanoma
• Post operative adjuvant treatment.
• Therapeutical treatment of the diseminated pathology.
• Radiotherapy palliative treatments
• Cerebral metastases treatment.
• Bone metastases treatment.
• Soft tissues metastases treatment.
• Minor lesions radiotherapic treatment
• Adenomas of the hypophysis.
• Adenomas of the parotid.
• Carcinoid adenomas.
• Chemodectomas, Paragangliomas.
• Desmoid tumors.
• Hyperthyroid Ophthalmopathy.
• Bone hemangiomas.
• Bone heterotopic ossification.
• Hypersplenism.
• Genetic Advice Unit.
• Hereditary colon cancer.
• Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

Treatment procedures

• Radiotherapic Treatment
• Virtual 3D simulation for external radiotherapy and high dose rate brachytherapy with CT-PET, MR, 64 slice CT and echography.
• External 3D Conformed boost of radiotherapy with automatic patient positioning control and organ movement control.
• Intensity-Modulated Radiation Radiotherapy (IMRT).
• Image-guided by radiotherapy (IGRT).
• Conformed dynamic archotherapy.
• Conformed arc therapy.
• Frameless system radiosurgery.
• Intra and extracranial stereotaxic conformed radiotherapy.
• Intracavitary and interstitial high dose rate brachytherapy with 3D planification of CT.
• Prostate brachytherapy with permanent I125 implants.
• Medical treatment
• Intravenuous and oral chemotherapy for solid tumors and lymphoms.
• Hormone therapy for breast and prostate cancer.
• Monoclonal intravenuous antibodies for solid tumors and lumphoms.
• Molecular targets-directed oral or intravenuous therapeutical treatments.
• Non Hodgkin’S lymphoma radioimmunotherapy.
• Interleukin and interferon Immunotherapy

Technology used

• High dose rate field electron lineal Accelerator VARIAN CLINAC 2100 CD fitted with:
• 6 to 18 MV photons.
• Electrons: 6, 9, 12, 16 and 20 MeV
• Dynamic wedges.
• Multiple Load-cell Counting scale for máximum field of MLC 120
• Laser Guard Collision detection system.
• Automatic Field Sequency programme (AFS).
• Dynamic MLC (Sliding Windows IMRT)
• Amorphous.Silicon portal vision.
• Image guided radiotherapy. (IGRT)
• Image System and dosimetric control with non silicon sensors.
• Image System with positioning control system “On Board Imaging” OBI.
• Movements controlling system for treated organs by “Cone Beam”.
• Radiosurgery
• "Frameless" system: non invasive method for radiosurgery.
• Positionning control system with guided cameras,"RadioCameras™ Treatment Guidance System"
• High dose rate brachytherapy. 20 channels Ir 192 VARISOURCE 200
• Prostate brachytherapy. With permanent I-125 implants.
• RAPID Strand seeds
• 3D planification systems:
• RTE: Eclipse
• IMRT: Helios
• HDR: Brachyvision
• Radiosurgery: Fastplan and InMerge System
• Permanent Computer Implants for Prostatic Brachytherapy: PCRT 3D
• VARIS NETWORK/ Vision generation 7. Integrated computerized management system.

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Our professionals

Head of service:

• Dr. Emilio Alba

Medical Oncology

• Dr. Manuel Cobo
• Dr. José A. Ortega Domínguez
• Dr. Grohn Pentti
• Dra. Cristina Quero Blanco
• Dr. Rafael Trujillo Vilchez

Radiotherapic Oncology

• Dra. Cristina Nuño
• Dra. Inmaculada Fortes de la Torre
• Dr. Francisco Manzano
• Dr. Pedro Galán Montenegro

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Patient healthcare

General advice for the handling of side effects of chemotherapy for patients treated with chemotherapy in the Xanit Oncology Institute (IOX).

• WHEN TEMPERATURE IS 38ª C OR MORE:
• The patient will be attended by the Emergency Services, open 24 hours-a-day, in the XANIT Hospital where the whole emergency team has full access to all medical information contained in personal medical reports since at Xanit Hospital all medical reports are computerized ones; such an asset enables every specialist to get all the data needed in a quick and secure way in order to know about your complete medical evolution; they will be in contact with the Oncology team and will have an urgent blood test done if needed so as to discard NEUTROPENIC TEMPERATURE (low defense level) and might have to have you taken as an in patient in the Xanit Hospital for further treatment.
• WHEN FEELING SICK OR VOMITING: Please follow these instructions:
• Have some Primperan: one tablet every 8 hours, to be taken half-an-hour before your meals.
• The medicine will be of help but your feeling relaxed and quiet will too prevent your feeling sick.
• When feeling sick or being sick, take care of your being well hydratated by getting all needed liquids.
• Before chemotherapy sessions:
• Have some fook unless you need a blood test.
• Have some easily digest food and drinks till a two hours period of time before the session.
• Try to avoid spicy meals or heavy ones.
• During chemotherapy sessions:
• Put on some comfortable clothes, unfasten your belt, unloose your tie, your shirt, etc.
• Try to feel relaxed.
• After chemotherapy sessions:
• Have some frequent and light meals.
• Try to avoid filling in your stomack and have some light and easy to digest food.
• When diabetic, check-up your glucose level a few times a day.
• Rinse out your mouth after your meals in order to fade away those tastes that might make you feel sick.
• Some antiemethic medicine might make you feel sleepy so do not fight against this feeling providing you won’t forget to take any determined medicine while asleep.
• When being continuously sick and not being able to have any food or drink, go to the Emergency Services at Xanit Hospital, open 24 hours-a-day, in the XANIT Hospital where the whole emergency team has full access to all medical information contained in your personal medical reports since at Xanit Hospital all medical reports are computerized ones; such an asset enables every specialist to get all the data needed in a quick and secure way in order to know about your complete medical evolution; they will be in contact with the Oncology if needed so as to have you taken as an in patient in the Xanit Hospital with an intravenuous hydratation and an intravenuous therapeutical treatment to stop your being sick.
• WHEN GETTING SORES OR ULCERS IN THE MOUTH, start the following treatment:
• Rinse your mouth with a bicarbonate solution and water.
• Have some rinsing every 6 hours with the Mycostatin solution.
• Try to avoid hot, spicy food and hot or acid drinks.
• You will more easily support such food as purées, baby prepared food, etc.
• When using a straw to have your food getting down your throat, you will avoid the most sensitive areas of your mouth.
• Keep your mouth cleam and relaxed.
• Keep your lips well moistured with lip gloss or Vaseline.
• When none ot these advice work, or when enable to eat or drink, the patient shall come to the Emergency Services in the Xanit Hospital, open 24 hours a da where the whole emergency team has full access to all medical information contained in your personal medical reports since at Xanit Hospital all medical reports are computerized ones; such an asset enables every specialist to get all the data needed in a quick and secure way in order to know about your complete medical evolution; they will be in contact with the Oncology and will have a blood test if needed .
• WHEN HAVING DIARREA, start on the following treatment:
• Fortasec: 2 tablets at the beginning of the diarrea process and one tablet after every diarrea (till a maximum of 6 a day).
• You will need to take on enough liquids in order to rehidrate yourself, most especially sodium and potassium minerals. You can have either some Aquarius or Sueroral: 2 litres a day.
• Try to control your weight too.
• Have some isotonic drinks, soups or juice; this will help you regain the lost sodium and potassium. Try to have these drinks better warm than cold since the latter would irritate your intestine and could increase the number of diarreas.
• Try to avoid all drinks containing gas; or try to have the gas evaporated before at least.
• Try to take low-fibre food.
• Avoid cafein (tea, coffee, chocolate, etc) and fat food, fried one or whole milk, etc.
• Try to get immature bananas, fruit purée, rice, boiled potatoes, carot purée, peach juice which are astringent kind of food with a high potassium level.
• When none ot these advice work, or when patient healthcare is not improving, the patient shall come to the Emergency Services in the Xanit Hospital, open 24 hours a day where the whole emergency team has full access to all medical information contained in your personal medical reports since at Xanit Hospital all medical reports are computerized ones; such an asset enables every specialist to get all the data needed in a quick and secure way in order to know about your complete medical evolution; they will be in contact with the Oncology and will have a blood test if needed or be able to know if the patient is deshidrateted. When deshidrated the patient will be taken as an in patient in the Xanit Hospital to get intravenous mineralized liquids.

Other general advice:

• WHEN WHITE CELLS LEVEL IS GETTING LOW (defense system):
• Try to prevent any posible infection.
• Try to avoid contact with infected persons (persons with coughs, flu, etc)
• Try to avoid being in contact with crowds in closed areas.
• Wash and dry thoroughfully your hands frequently.
• Keep your teeth and gums healthy, by using a smooth brush to avoid producing any injury.
• Have many liquids that will make you go to the toilets frequently and will prevent you from getting any urine infection.
• Keep any wound or cut thoroughfully clean.
• Wash all fresh food such as fruits and vegetables.
• WHEN GETTING LOW RED CELLS LEVEL:
• Try to avoid all wounds or blows since you are more liable now to bleed or get hematomes.
• Do not take any aspirin nor any aspirin-like tablet when your red cell level is low, have paracetamol instead when feeling pain.
• When getting hematomes or gum bleeding, go to the Emergency Services in order to have a blood test done.
• WHEN NOTICING TASTE OR SMELL CHANGING:
• Smell problems can be solved by modifying the way to cook your food.
• Try to avoid coffee, cauliflower, bacon, fried food since they all have a very marked smell.
• You will find it easier to tolerate the food if it has not been warmed up.
• Some of your meat will have a lesser smell when cooked instead of fried or when prepared in the oven.
• Gelly is usually well tolerated when mixed up with meat, vegetables, etc.
• Taste changes: you might undergo some temporary taste changes due to the medication received altering your saliva which will alter your taste too.
• Cakes do taste more or less sweet.
• Red meat is bitter.
• Soft food, taste like chewy-ones or chalk.
• One good solution being that of using lemon, origan, mint to cook or either using wine or sweet sauce.
• All crunchy-food like are usually well tolerated.
• Try to have some high protein food (such as eggs, cheese, milk, fried fruit, etc...).
• Have some non salted food instead of the salted ones so as to prevent liquid retention.
• Bitter taste can be solved by cooking in non metallic stew or saucepans; or by rinsing your mouth with bicarbonate or have some sweeties before eating, etc.
• The "vitamin-like" taste or smell can be solved by covering the glass or pot with a lid while drinking with a straw.
• When feeling sick, try to avoid eating your favourite dishes so as to increase your appetite since you might get to hate them.
• WHEN FEELING YOUR MOUTH IS DRY:
• Try to eat stew-like kind of food, with soft sauces like light purées.
• When feeling your mouth is burning, have some bitter drinks or cakes, some chewing-gum, sweeties or water ice-creams since it will help you producing more saliva.
• Have some warm water rising in the mouth before eating.
• WHEN FEELING STOMAC OR INTESTIN PAIN:
• Some pieces of food can produce gas in your stomac or intestine which can originate inflamation or make you feel uncomfortable and limit your food ingestión.
• Others will provoque irritation and burning sensation of your stomac wall.
• Try to avoid all dry vegetables and fresh vegetables such as cauliflower, onions, etc.
• Do not take light or low-fibre food.
• Try to avoid getting some liquid and solid food in the same meal since they will make you feel your stomac is full and will make your digestion more difficult.
• SOME GENERAL ADVICE ABOUT NUTRITION:
• Try to have enough food and to keep on the same weight while having chemotherapy treatment which is very important for you to cure yourself.
• Try to maintain your weight between 3 to 5 kilos to that of reference. It is quite normal for your weight to be up and down during your treatment; some days you will feel your apetite has literally died, and others, you will be eating in a normal way.
• When having corticoid treatment, you will feel inflated; you will gain some weight, your blood pressure will increase and your blood sugar level as well; in order to avoid any problematic health consequence, we do recommend you to avoid salt and sugar in all your meals and to check-up regularly your blood pressure and blood sugar level if you used to be diabetic or have a high blood pressure.
• Stress, pain or fatigue feelings will make loose your usual apetite.
• Try to prevent such a problem following these advice:
• Try to get variety in your meal presentation and in your surroundings while eating.
• Have 5 or 6 light meals a day.
• Try to cook light meals with poached, boiled, oven-cooked fat-free food.
• Try to have your meals when feeling at rest and when your apetite is good.
• Slowly chew your food with closed mouth so as to avoid any gas production that would make your digestion more difficult.
• Avoid heavy food such as whole milk, butter...
• Avoid big and low energetic meals (big salads, soups). Have small amounts of food in one dish at a time.
• BASIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR HAIR:
• Chemotherapy treatments will not necessarily cause your hair to fall down or your skin to be damaged.
• Hair loss happen when chemotherapy medicine is damaging the folicule cells causing their division which produces new hair to be weakened and fragile and will eventually come off the scalp or fall off its very root. That might affect other parts of the body, people do actually sometimes notice how their eyebrows get thinner
• The hair loss will mostly depend on the type and dosis of chemotherapy treatments given.
• Some might provoke a parcial loss or hair thinning, while others will produce a complete hair loss.
• If your hair is quite long, it might be of help to have it cut with a new style before starting the chemotherapy treatments that will cause it to fall off.
• When thinking of buying a wig, try to get some advice before since the cheapest is not usually the best option.
• You might find it easier when using scarves, turbans, hats, etc.
• If you prefer being bare-headed, you will need to watch for the weather, since hair is normally a body -protection against heat-loss. When the weather is cold you will need to wear a scarf or a cap and have some anti-UV sun protection
• GENERAL ADVICE ABOUT SKIN AND NAIL CARE
• Dry skin is usually caused by chemotherapy, anti-nausea medicines, dehydration or inadequate nutrition.
• You will need your skin to be moistured and duly oiled after your dalily shower.
• Have some warm showers or bath, not too hot ones since they will dry your skin up.
• Try to use oats soap which does not dry as much as the usual ones.
• Try to avoid any alcool product since they will dry your skin up.
• Try to avoid touching wool or rough tissues, better try to use cotton linen that are softer and looser.
• Some medicine used in chemotherapy treatments might make your skin more sensitive to sun light.
• You will need to use high-level sun protection and lip protection too.
• Your nails might turn more fragile and grow slowlier than usual. Try to cut them short. When using nail varnish remover, try to use an alcool-free one containing lanolin instead.

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Medical Oncology

General advice for the handling of side effects of chemotherapy for patients treated with chemotherapy in the Xanit Oncology Institute (IOX).

CHEMOTHERAPY

Chemotherapy is a treatment meant to destroy all cancer cells by means of pharmacological use. There are more than 50 different medical treatments to fight such pathology and to prevent malignous cells from growing, multiplying and be disseminated. Healthy cells usually grow and divide themselves in a controlled way meanwhile cancerous cells are mostly characterized by their out of control growth. Such pharmacological treatments are therefore used alone or in a combined way in order to stop such a chaotic multiplication.

The chemotherapeutical products can be used either orally (tablets, capsules or drinkable solution), but the digestive system does not always assimilate them which is why intramuscular injections or intra-venous ones can be necessary. The latter being the most frequent way since the oncologists can inject either in the patient’ hand or in his/her arm any of the treatments. Another option is the use of a catheter: flexible rubber tubing inserted in a major vein during the whole duration of the treatment. Sometimes, the catheter is connected to a device: a plastic or metal disc called port a catheter, inserted below the skin to avoid unnecessary extra punctures. In order to control the amount of medicine administrated an infusion pump fitted with a programmable piston operated therapeutic treatment delivery system is often used. When the treatment is an intramuscular one, the effects of chemotherapy do last longer since the absorbsion in muscular tissues is usually slowlier. Finally, in some cases, when the pathology has reached the spinal cord or the brain, it is necessary to administrate directly into the spinal fluid all medicines by means of the intra-spinal tunnelized catheters method which allows the chemotherapy to be injected directly into the intra-spinal space.

These are not the only ways of administration, others like creams or lotions applied directly on the skin, intra arterial treatments, and injections inside the very tumour… The doses and type of treatment varying according to the types of cancers and to the answer or personal situation of the patient and might be administrated daily or even weekly or monthly. The treatment is usually administrated on an alternative basis during cycles with some breaks in between for the body to start producing healthy cells again and recover itself from the medication effects. The cycles are a fundamental part for the chemotherapy treatment to be effective, which is why it is important to observe the hours and the rhythm, following the instructions given by the oncologists. The period of time elapsed between every cycle depends on the very treatment, though it usually last three to four weeks.

Some people can have the treatment at home, though others will need to have it in the consultation or in the day hospital fitted with beds where the patient only lies down during the treatment duration and then goes back home until the next session. It will occasionally be necessary for the patient to be taken as an in patient for the oncologists to observe the therapy effects and to adjust the doses on a more personalized basis. Some other medicine can produce interactions with chemotherapy which is why you shall need to ask your specialist before deciding taking any medicine or any tablet. Before taking laxatives, analgesic treatments, flu remedy, vitamins, herbal supplements…you shall need to ask your specialist about it.

The main difference between chemotherapy and other options offered to fight this pathology, -radiotherapy and surgery- is that it can be used in a systemic way. Which means these most particular treatments do not act in a determined area but do actually get to all body parts, where the malignous cells have extended themselves.

According to the type of cancer and to its staging, chemotherapy can be used to reach different goals:

• To cure cancer – a goal considered to be reached when the patient no longer bears malignous cells in his/her body, when the tumour disappears and the patient get rid of the pathology for years-.
• To control cancer - which is trying to prevent the pathology extending itself. The therapeutic treatments do usually, in such a case, erase all malignous cells having reached other organs.
• Palliative treatment: acting on the very symptoms of the pathology, being mainly pain itself undermining patients’ quality of life.

The pharmacological treatment is usually completed with radiotherapy and sometimes including surgery. The neo adjuvant chemotherapy treatment is normally used to reduce the tumour size before it is excised; meanwhile, when therapy is used after the surgery to end up with all possible remnants of maglinous cells in the organism it is called adjuvant chemotherapy.

Every treatment is working according to different mechanisms, so that some can “poison” directly the malignous cells damaging their DNA while others are making the immune system react and be able to identify such cells as “foreign elements” and order their destruction. The activity or sleep of malignous cells depends sometimes on their reaction against hormones produced naturally by the body. In this particular case, the treatment is meant to erase the effects produced by the patient’s’ hormones.

The medicine agents used during oncology therapies can be divided into categories according to the way they work and according to how they affect malignous cells. If the specialists know the very moment of the cycle these products act and the concrete activity they really block to slow down the pathology extension, they will then be able to decide which treatment will have a more effective effect on every type of tumour, if they will need to combine various agents to get better results, if they can use these treatments together with others and including when to administrate them to get better results.

• Alkylating agents (cisplatin, carboplatin, clorambucil, busulfano...): These act directly on the DNA so as to prevent cancer cell to keep on multiplying themselves. They are effective while used in chronic leukaemia, Hodgkin’s’ lymphoma treatments and for the patients with Hodgkins’ disease, non Hodgkin lymphoma and some lung, breast and ovarian tumours.
• Nitrosoureas (carmustin or lomustin for example): This group of treatments is acting in a similar way while compared with the alkylating agents by making it difficult for the enzymes to carry on their DNA repair work. These treatments are usually used against cerebral tumours or malignous melanomas.
• Anti-metabolites agents: such agents combine themselves with the DNA so as to modify the cell structure and producing them to die since they can no longer multiply normally. These treatments such as the 5-fluoracil or the metrotexate are administrated to patients with breast, ovarian or gastro intestinal tumours and to patients with chronic leukemia.
• Antitumoral antibiotics (doxorubicin, mitoxantrone etc): they act in a different way while compared with the antibiotics used for infections since their mechanism is to alter the cell membrane and to block the cell multiplication process.
• Myotic Inhibitors: from the paclitaxel to the docetaxel, all agents are deriving from natural products which are able to slow down the cell reproduction process and to stop the action of cell reproduction enzymes.
• Immunotherapy: this group is including all the agents that can stimulate the immune system of the patient for his/her organism to be able to recognize and fight the cancer cells. Some experts do classify these treatments apart from the chemotherapy ones. The first immunotherapy treatment is reported to have taken place at the beginnings of the XXIst century when William Cloey, a New York based surgeon noticed a spontaneous sarcoma regression for some of his patients having had a previous bacterial infection.

NEW MOLECULAR TREATMENTS

The three main differences between traditional chemotherapy and the new molecular treatments to fight cancer are:

• Firstly, the traditional chemotherapy treatments have been discovered by hazard.
• Secondly, they are meant to be used against all cells multiplying quickly.
• At last, they usually entail a lot of side effects.

The traditional way to find new pharmacological treatments against cancer has not usually been very sophisticated. Some "agent hunters" research teams do literally comb the earth to find new chemical agents. Any origin can be valid: tropical plants, minerals found in the deepest caves, deep sea animals…Most of these products are easily obtained and immediately thrown away; some because they are too difficult to get, others because they are easily oxidized, others because they cannot be mixed with water or because their components seem to be toxic. The remnant molecules characteristics are then tested to verify if they are anti cancerous. Laboratory rats used to be employed but nowadays malignous cells are cultivated in laboratories. Only a few agents between the thousands recollected do pass this testing part and become potential chemotherapy treatment candidates. Even thus, most of the latter will never become useful medicines.

While traditional agents against cancer have been “found”, new molecular treatments are "produced". What the research team is usually intending to find is the "molecular target" –a key asset during the whole process- against which the product will be proved to be effective. Cancer researchers do study first of all, how to build anew all the different stages between the normal cell and its transformation into the cancerous one, they then try to find some deficiencies, the Achiles’heel of such a process. It might be a substance most needed for cancerous cells to multiply themselves; or a protein acting as a go-between informing the DNA that a particular substance is present or not; or a gene that is "stuck" and working permanently when it only should work under specified circumstances; or a particular security system the tumoral cell has been able to bypass…

Once the target has been chosen and the action has been planned, the medicine is produced in the laboratory. When the weak point is for example a cell sensor which can "feel" the presence of all hormone-like material, we could design a molecule similar to that one and have it fixed onto the sensor to deactivate it; like a kind of "silicone injection into the door lock."

The traditional methods used to find anti-cancer agents are too rough, too gross. They are based upon quickly multiplying cell systems and are therefore unable to identify any other substance than the ones interfering with cell division. Accelerated cell division is truly an essential characteristic of cancer but it is certainly not the only one.

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