When 60 Minutes called Kanzius RF therapy, which uses gold nanoparticles and radio waves, one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research, I raised my eyebrows and started compiling a list of other treatments that seem even more viable:

5. Gene Knockdown

Simply put, cancer is what happens when some cells start multiplying uncontrollably. Tiny molecules, called siRNA, can halt the production of proteins that help tumors grow and survive. Several companies, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, are pursuing that strategy. Their experimental drug, ALN-VSP01, is a cocktail that stops the production of two molecules. In doing so, it can simultaneously cut off the supply of blood to a tumor and halt cell division.

Unfortunately, siRNA molecules are quite fragile. The trickiest part of this treatment is slipping them into the cancer cells before they are destroyed by enzymes called nucleases. One classic approach is to package them in a tiny bubble of fat molecules called a liposome.

4. Viruses

Years of evolution have given viruses an unprecedented ability to enter cells and hijack or destroy them. Several rather harmless varieties can kill tumors while leaving normal cells unscathed. Often, they are genetically modified to increase their effectiveness.

Jennerex biotherapeutics is one of several companies that is testing vaccinia as a cure for some types of the deadly disease. A similar virus has been used on hundreds of millions of people as a smallpox vaccine.

3. Small Molecules

Chemotherapy is a blunt instrument. Many drugs work by killing cancer cells just a little bit faster than they destroy the normal ones. However, medicinal chemists are hard at work making molecules that will take a smarter approach to fighting the disease.

For instance, Johnson and Johnson is testing drug called Tipifarnib, which gums up farnesyl transferase, an enzyme that aggravates cancer. Unlike earlier cancer treatments, it is not meant to kill cancer cells, but rather to calm them down.

2. Vaccines

In many instances, researchers have been able to train the human body to attack cancer cells. In some instances, the scientists take whole cells from a tumor, kill them, and then douse them with molecules that are known to anger the immune system before injecting them back into a patient. On other occasions, they pick a single molecule that adorns the surface of cancer cells and try to get the immune system to recognize it as a signal to attack.

One such treatment, which uses whole cancer cells, has been approved by the Russian Food and Drug Administration. In the United States, many of the treatments are in Phase III clinical trials, which means they are almost ready for prime time.

On another front, vaccines like Gardasil can protect people from some of the viruses which cause genetic damage. In that case, it wards of human papillomavirus, which is known to cause cervical cancer.

1. Epigenetic Drugs

Mutations, scrambled genes, can cause cells to malfunction and divide uncontrollably, but that is only one cause of cancer. In many cancer cells, tumor suppressor genes, which should always be on, get switched off accidentally. Sophisticated drugs might be able to turn our natural defenses back on – causing cancer cells to fix or kill themselves, or at least making them more responsive to chemotherapy.

Two epigenetic drugs, Valproic acid and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, are already on the market. They make cancer cells more willing to kill themselves by inactivating histone deacetylase – an enzyme that silences genes – including those that act as safeguards. Meanwhile, Curagen is testing a compound called PXD101, which acts on the same protein.

Photo: worak / flickr