While there currently isn’t a cure for cancer, researchers are exploring several new treatments, including vaccines and gene editing, that could eventually change the face of cancer treatment.

When it comes to a cure for cancer, it’s important to understand the difference between a cure and remission:

  • Cure. A cure means that treatment has eliminated all traces of cancer from the body and has ensured that it won’t come back.
  • Remission. A person who is in remission may have few to no signs of cancer cells in their body. There are two different kinds of remission:
    • A complete remission, which means there aren’t any detectable signs of cancer. If this happens, it’s usually within the first 5 yearsTrusted Source after treatment.
    • A partial remission, which means the cancer has shrunk, but the cancer cells are still detectable.

Even after a complete remission, cancer cells can remain in the body. This means the cancer can come back.

Newer treatments may be used outside of or along with more conventional cancer treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Cancer research resources

Cancer immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer cells. However, our immune system may need help identifying them. There are several ways to provide this help.

Vaccines

Currently, there are only two vaccines approved by the FDA to treat cancer:

Cancer cells usually have molecules on their surface that aren’t on healthy cells. A vaccine containing these molecules may help the immune system better recognize and destroy cancer cells.

According to a 2021 reviewTrusted Source, researchers are currently working on developing and testing new vaccines to treat certain types of cancer. These vaccines are sometimes tested in combinationTrusted Source with established cancer drugs.

T-cell therapy

During CAR T-cell therapy, T-cells are extracted and modified to add a receptor to their surface. This helps the T-cells better recognize and destroy cancer cells when they’re reintroduced into your body.

As of this writing, 6 CAR T-cell therapies have been approvedTrusted Source by the FDA:

  • Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah)
  • Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta)
  • Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus)
  • Lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi)
  • Idecabtagene vicleucel (Abecma)
  • Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti)

These are used to treat blood cancers, including some types of leukemias and lymphomas, as well as multiple myeloma.

While CAR T-cell therapy can be beneficial when other cancer treatments haven’t been effective, it’s also associated with some potentially serious side effects, including:

Researchers are studying ways to manage the side effectsTrusted Source associated with CAR T-cell therapy. For example, tocilizumab can be used to manage CRS.

Clinical trials are in progress to see how this therapy might be able to treat other types of cancers, including solid tumors, which can be harder for CAR T-cells to reach.

Monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy involves making large amounts of antibodies that recognize antigens that are usually found on the surface of cancer cells. They are then injected into the body, where they can help find and neutralize cancer cells.

Examples mAbs that have been approved for cancer therapy include:

  • Alemtuzumab (Campath). This mAb targets a protein that is highly expressed on the surface of both T and B cell lymphocytes. This can help your body get rid of any cancer-containing cells.
  • Trastuzumab (Herceptin). Trastuzumab blocks the activity of HER2, a protein found on some breast cancer cells. This stops or slows the growth.
  • Blinatumomab (Blincyto). This is considered a T-Cell therapy and a mAb, since it contains two different mAbs. One attaches to the cancer cells, while the other attaches to immune cells. It’s currently used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia, and similar drugs are being developed for diseases like myeloma.

Monoclonal antibodies can also be attached to radioactive particles or chemotherapy drugs. These are called conjugated mAbs, and they allow these cancer-fighting substances to be delivered directly to cancer cells.

Examples of conjugated mAbs include:

  • Ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin). This mAb has a radioactive particle attached to it. It’s used to treat some types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
  • Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla). This antibody has a chemotherapy drug attached to it. It’s used to treat some types of breast cancer.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors boost the immune system’s response to cancer.

Checkpoint molecules on the surfaces of cells prevent T-cells from attacking them. Checkpoint inhibitors help T-cells avoid these checkpoints, allowing them to better attack cancer cells.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are used to treat a variety of cancers, including lung cancer and skin cancer. A few examples of immune checkpoint inhibitors includeTrusted Source:

Gene therapy is a way of treating diseases by editing or altering the genes within the cells of your body.

In the case of cancer, genes become defective or damaged, leading some cells to grow out of control and form a tumor. The goal of cancer gene therapy is to treat disease by replacing or modifying this damaged genetic information with healthy code.

Researchers are still studying most gene therapies in labs or clinical trials.

Gene editing

Gene editing is the process of adding, removing, or modifying genes. For cancer treatment, a new gene would be introduced into cancer cells. This would either cause the cancer cells to die off or prevent them from growing.

CRISPR is an example of gene editing that lets researchers target specific DNA sequences using an enzyme and a modified piece of nucleic acid. The enzyme removes the DNA sequence, allowing it to be replaced with a customized sequence.

So far, some phase 1 clinical trials that use CRISPR technology to modify T-cells in people with advanced cancer have been done. Phase 1 clinical trials mainly evaluate the safety and feasibility of a new treatment.

One 2020 trial involved 3 people with advanced, refractory cancer, which is cancer that’s stopped responding to treatment. In all 3 people, the changes introduced by CRISPR were stable for at least 9 months. No significant side effects were observed.

Another 2020 trialTrusted Source of T-cells modified with CRISPR involved 12 people with advanced, refractory NSCLC. While the changes introduced by CRISPR didn’t last long, the reported side effects weren’t serious. CRISPR also didn’t seem to impact off-target sites.

Virotherapy

Virotherapy is the use of viruses to selectively kill cancer cells. The viruses used in virotherapy are called oncolytic viruses.

An oncolytic virus kills a cancer cell by replicating inside cancer cells and breaking them open. The cancer-related antigens are then exposed to the body’s immune system.

Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is the one of the only approved versionsTrusted Source of this treatment. T-VEC is a modified herpes virus used to treat melanoma skin cancer that can’t be surgically removed.

Researchers continue to study oncolytic viruses as a way to treat cancer. A 2020 review looked at studies on oncolytic viruses between the years 2000 and 2020. A total of 97 different clinical trials were found, most of them phase 1.

The most common types of cancers targeted with virotherapy were melanoma and digestive cancers. A modified adenovirus was the most frequently studied oncolytic virus. The reviewers noted that only 7 of the studies reported on the levels of tumor-specific immune response.

A 2023 review noted that there are hundreds of clinical trials investigating the use of oncolytic viruses for independently and combined with other therapies for cancer.

Some cancers are sensitive to the levels of specific hormones. Hormone therapy uses medication to lower or block their production, which may slow the growthTrusted Source of these types of cancers.

Hormone therapy is sometimes usedTrusted Source to treat some forms of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Nanoparticles are tiny structures that are smaller than cells.

Nanoparticles may also be able to affect the immune system. One 2020 studyTrusted Source used a nanoparticle-based system in mice to train immune cells to mount a response against cancer cells. This approach also helped make treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors more effective.

Several nanoparticle-based delivery systemsTrusted Source are approved by the FDA for cancer treatments. These systems use nanoparticles to more effectively deliver cancer drugs.

Some examples of cancer drugs that may use a nanoparticle-based delivery system are those for paclitaxel (Abraxane) and doxorubicin (Doxil).

In the future, nanotechnology could be used to detect cancer early and improve outcomes.

Other cancer treatments that use nanoparticle technology are currently in clinical trials. You can find a list of active nanoparticle clinical trials for cancer treatment on the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Clinical Trials website.

As of now, there is currently no definite cure for cancer. Even if a person has achieved complete remission, it is still possible for their cancer to return in the future.

Some treatments that are already in use alongside more conventional cancer therapies include hormone therapy and immunotherapies like mAbs, CAR T-cell therapy, and cancer vaccines.

Other key research areas include gene editing, especially using the CRISPR system, as well as nanoparticles. While these technologies are still in their early development stages, initial studies and trials have shown promising results.