One of the great things about being in the investment business is that in the course of researching companies to invest in, you learn about all of the latest and greatest innovations going on in those companies’ respective industries.
Recently, I have been looking at potential investments in the biotechnology field and have been reading about some incredible progress being made in the field of cancer treatments. First, here are some sobering statistics from the American Society of Clinical Oncology:
This year, more than 14 million people worldwide will learn they have cancer. According to the latest global statistics, nearly 9 million people a year lose their lives to cancer. That equates to approximately 22,000 cancer deaths per day. The global cancer burden is expected to grow in the future, reaching 21 million patients with cancer and 13 million deaths per year by 2030, as the world’s population expands and ages.
Those stats really put the enormity of the disease in perspective. The good news is that in the last 5 years, there have been huge strides made in how we treat cancer. Prior to these breakthroughs, the typical course of action was to try and destroy the cancer cells by destroying all cells in the affected area via radiation and/or chemotherapy treatments. This is analogous to the military finding a terrorist cell in Charleston, South Carolina and then carpet bombing the whole city to get rid of it!
Fortunately, now there are treatments, such as immunotherapy, that use our own bodies’ defenses to destroy the cancer cells, without destroying all of the other healthy cells. It is amazing how immunotherapy works: cancer cells hide from our immune system by attaching themselves to certain proteins and sugars, creating a cloak that makes them invisible to our immune cells that want to protect us. Immunotherapy drugs remove the cloaking device from the cancer cells, which then allows our immune system to locate and kill the cancer cells. So basically, we can now use our own built-in defense system to cure cancer.
Many of these immunotherapy drugs have been used in conjunction with chemotherapy but new tests have shown that they are just as effective on their own. This is great news because then we don’t have to subjected to the horrible side effects of radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
Now, this isn’t quite the holy grail of cancer treatments yet since its effectiveness varies widely from patient to patient. But, we are certainly headed in the right direction and the future is definitely looking brighter!
Joe Baker, CFP®
Baker Asset Management, LLC
joebaker@bakerassetmanagement.com
