Drug treatments
Current drug treatments are very effective in some cancers - childhood leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma and testicular cancer - but less good for others. Scientists are investigating why some tumours respond to chemotherapy and others do not. For example, some drugs kill tumours by forcing cancer cells to commit suicide, a process known as apoptosis. Tumour cells that have genetic changes affecting the cells' ability to go through apoptosis are often more resistant to drugs.
