Melbourne-developed Venetoclax is one of a new generation of targeted drugs which attack specific cancer-causing biological factors like cell-structure mutations. Using the body’s own immune system to defeat cancer The developers of Venetoclax are from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Venetoclax and targeted therapies are just one of a number of major breakthroughs in cancer research in recent years.
The area of research giving the most hope is immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy drugs work by harnessing the body’s own immune system to defeat cancer and a new dedicated immunotherapy lab at the just-opened Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre will focus on their development.
So far, they have been used most effectively in the treatment of melanoma.