Name: A new strategy in the war on cancer
Uploaded: 2010-02-04T09:00:00Z
Duration: 23 min 27 s
Description: Too often, cancer treatments have a short-sighted focus on individual cells, says David Agus. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs, computer modeling and protein analysis to diagnose and treat the whole body.

Too often, cancer treatments have a short-sighted focus on individual cells, says David Agus. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs, computer modeling and protein analysis to diagnose and treat the whole body.

A new strategy in the war on cancer

Decades of focusing on genes have left cancer death rates nearly unchanged, even as heart disease has plummeted. Cancer resists simple solutions because it is a dynamic, evolving system shaped by age, environment, and countless hidden variables. The next leap forward will come from treating cancer as a complex network, using cross-disciplinary tools like proteomics, data modeling, and early prevention to shift from reaction to control. One striking trial found that a bone drug, not even designed for cancer, cut recurrences by 35 percent, showing the power of changing the system rather than targeting a single cell.