If the use of the two immune-boosting drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab prove as effective as scientists hope, its discovery could be the latest in a long line of breakththroughs dating back more than 100 years.

By integrating data from the many disciplines of cancer research, and by using technologies that provide comprehensive data about specific sets of cell components (the so-called “-omics” technologies), researchers in the early 21st century have made substantial progress toward modeling the process of cancer formation.

Targeted therapy is a newer type of cancer treatment that uses drugs or other substances to more precisely identify and attack cancer cells, usually while doing little damage to normal cells. Targeted therapy is a growing part of many cancer treatment regimens.

Cancer immunotherapy is the promising new cancer treatment to improve the innate powers of the immune system to fight against cancer. These treatments have few or no side effects, long-lasting cures for any cancer type. Researchers are continuing for developing and delivering effective and safe treatments. Immunotherapy works by applying an external stimulus to the immune system either by man-made or by naturally-derived tumor specific proteins.

A groundbreaking new therapy in which white blood cells were reprogrammed to attack cancer cells is showing great promise after more than 90 percent of terminally ill leukemia patients had their symptoms disappear completely.

Scientists have developed a process that uses the luminous cells from jellyfish to diagnose cancer tumors deep within the human body. The researchers have used an altered form of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) so that it shows up as red or blue, rather than its original green. Color is important in disease diagnosis, as most colors in the spectrum are rapidly absorbed, and tumors deep within the body become invisible.

The PMI is a $215 million proposed investment in the President’s 2016 Budget to accelerate biomedical research and provide clinicians with new tools to select the therapies that will work best in individual patients. The PMI’s near-term emphasis is on cancer, Precision medicine uses the genetics of disease to identify effective therapies, and, thanks in large part to NCI-supported research, we know that cancer is a disease of the genome.

Scientists in America believe they may have found a potentially revolutionary way to treat cancer. They've managed to re-train cells in the body's own immune system so they attack the disease. In a trial, more than 90 per cent of terminally-ill patients with blood cancers went into complete remission.

Global changes in the epigenetic landscape are a hallmark of cancer. The initiation and progression of cancer, traditionally seen as a genetic disease, is now realized to involve epigenetic abnormalities along with genetic alterations. Recent advancements in the rapidly evolving field of cancer epigenetics have shown extensive reprogramming of every component of the epigenetic machinery in cancer including DNA methylation, histone modifications, nucleosome positioning and non-coding RNAs, specifically microRNA expression.