Curing Cancer: Scientists Working Hard to Find a Cure - Essay Sample

Introduction

Cancer is a form of the disease that involves abnormal growth of cells spreading to other parts of the body. After these, there is the development of tumors which do not spread to the rest of the body. Its signs and symptoms include prolonged cough, weight loss that one cannot explain, lump, change in the movements of bowel, and bleeding that is not normal. There are around a hundred types of cancer that affect human beings. Due to this, a scientist works daily to try and develop a cure to help in the treatment. Therefore in this context, my primary focus is on drug extracted from iridium metal and believed to treat cancer effectively. Before consuming a drug, one should ensure they are correctly tested to determine their effectiveness and whether they have adverse effects that might lead to patient's death.

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What model(s) will you use for testing (i.e., animal, cell cultures, and computer simulations)?

One of the best model to use when it comes to testing of drugs, especially those related to human beings is the use of animals. Here small groups of animals are used whereby they are exposed to high chemical dosages to represent large numbers of animals. That is, they help in determining the risk these drugs have in human beings through mathematical low dose extrapolation. Animals help scientist to acquire information regarding chemical toxicity for both exposures on chronic and acute. Apart from that, animals aid in determining levels of dosage that are safe for human consumption through the use of animal toxicity data (Richards, 2008). This is where chemicals are exposed to the most sensitive species in the laboratory to determine the adverse effects they have. Therefore through animals, a scientist can comprehend how a compound produce harmful effects, toxicity and also facilitate the risk assessment of public health by offering justifiable evidence.

However, there are various challenges associated with the use of animals in the testing of toxicity. One of the problems is the act appears to be inhumane. Animals used as a subject are exposed to the harsh condition whereby some end up dying. Apart from that, animals are different from people; thus, some of the drugs with no effects on these animals might end up affecting people negatively.

In determining the safety and effectiveness of the drug, would it be necessary to test efficacy, toxicity, and lethality?

Chemicals, for instance, prescribed medicine, are used because people benefit from using them correctly. However, if these chemicals are used for the wrong purpose or one consumes excess dosage, it will be toxic and cause harm. Apart from that for a scientist to determine the chemical benefits associated with a particular drug, they carry out a comparison of the efficacy and toxicity produced by the dosage. That is when a curve of toxicity shifts to the right and compared to ninety percent of effectiveness; the drug appears to be less toxic. In the case that both curves are fur apart, the safer, the drug is for consumption but whenever the two curves are the drug is not safe for human use (Brown & Wright, 2016).

One of the reasons as to why it is necessary to carry out the test of toxicity is to offer chemical safety evaluation. This is mainly done through subject animals that are exposed to the drugs to determine any negative effects. It also helps in evaluating the chemical composition of the drug and whether it has a long or short term effect on the person using them. For instance, in this case, the drug is produced from iridium metal whereby metals have lots of adverse effects if used over the years hence necessary for the test.

When it comes to the efficacy test, it aids in determining the effectiveness of the drug. When one talks about effectiveness, he or she refers to whether the drug can perform the intended purpose, which in this case is cancer. That is for a drug to effective, it must be able to help the body of an individual to fight against the illness he or she was being treated against at the given dosages. For instance to improve the outcome of this drug the test should be done separately for one to be able to eliminate errors that might occur (Snider, Babin, Jett, Platoff & Yeung, 2016). On the other hand lethality test helps in determining the extent at which the dosage becomes harmful to human beings. That is the drug to be used until all cancerous cells are dead; thus, lethality test helps in determining the particular duration the patient will use the drug. After this duration, the drugs might end up harming the patient since it is after this period when the drug becomes lethal to the body of the individual.

From the above context, therefore, one of the things that I hope to obtain from the tests is a drug that will be helpful to the people infected by cancer. This disease is killing people both the young and elderly if not screened at the early stages; thus, a cure would be helpful to the many. Apart from that to ensure the safety of people consuming these drugs, firms producing these products should ensure they carry out these tests. This will help in ensuring there is no development of the new disease.

References

Brown, E. D., & Wright, G. D. (2016). Antibacterial drug discovery in the resistance era. Nature, 529(7586), 336.

Richards, I. (2008). Principles and practice of toxicology in public health. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Snider, T. H., Babin, M. C., Jett, D. A., Platoff Jr, G. E., & Yeung, D. T. (2016). Toxicity and median effective doses of oxime therapies against percutaneous organophosphorus pesticide and nerve agent challenges in the Hartley guinea pig. The journal of toxicological sciences, 41(4), 511-521.