Tadeusz Denisso M.D. Ph.D. from the Clinic of Lung Tumours and Chest in Oncology Centre about the guided therapy:

- Term "guided therapy" comprises giving patients the drugs from group of compounds acting on recep­tors of substances being growth factors. Group of drugs of guided therapy comprises most of all preparations, which influence on cellular receptors receiving signals or also block growth factors formation. Drugs of this group are the most often inhibitors – suppress some enzymes being the element of pathway of growth factors transformation or antibodies, which selectively bind with receptors.

So far only in small group of tumours some – I stress: some - effectiveness of these drugs has been noted, the most often in these patients, who have already been treated with all other methods. Guided therapy caused an insignificant prolongation of survival.

Unquestionable advantage of this therapy is its relatively low toxicity – these drugs do not kill cell, but block mechanisms responsible for tumour's growth. Consequently, the side effects are limited i.e. to rush or diarrhoea - ailments, which in comparison with side effects of cytostatics, which may even lead to patient’s death, are truly faint. It is a very promising group of drugs, but for the present moment the real effects of their use can be considered for interesting and at most very insignificant.

These are quite new therapeutic substances, not derivatives of already used drugs, designed and synthesised in laboratories. They could appear thanks to the development of basic sciences (especially Biology) and discovery, that growth factors, their receptors exist at all and they can be influenced.

Future? For 20, 50, 100 years science will discover possibilities of repair interference on level of particular genes, which mutations lead to development of neoplastic cells. And then... tumours will become totally curable.

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