Revisiting the standards of cancer detection and therapy alongside their comparison to modern methods

Figure 2 Conventional and modern methods of cancer therapy. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery are standard approaches that can be used in combination. Chemotherapeutics are harmful to both cancer cells and normal cells, negatively affecting the quality of life. Radiotherapy counteracts cancer via ionizing radiation that deposits high-energy beams in cells. Surgery does not guarantee improvement in the patient’s health and carries several risks such as bleeding and damage to surrounding organs and tissues. The current standard of care is unsatisfactory in most cancer types, necessitating the use of novel methods such as oncolytic virotherapy, exosome-based therapy, nanotechnology, dendritic cells, CAR-based therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, natural product-based therapy, tumor treating fields, and photodynamic therapy. Figure created with BioRender. CAR: Chimeric antigen receptor; UCAR: Universal CAR; NK: Natural killer; PTX: Paclitaxel.