Robert Goldberg of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest says cancer treatment is on the cusp of huge advances. Targeting cancer-causing gene mutations is the next frontier, he says. Targeted therapy, which comes in pill form, has already proven to be a game-changer for some of the most virulent types of the disease, including pancreatic cancer, Newsmax Health reports.

“We’re entering an era that isn’t a matter of where the cancer is but the mutation that causes the cancer,” Goldberg says. “One genetic mutation can cause a lot of different cancers.”

Even the language of cancer will change, Goldberg says. Instead of talking about site of the cancer – breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, etc. – doctors will refer to the gene mutation that causes it.

Already, malignancies historically unresponsive to treatment, such as cancer of the pancreas and multiple myeloma, are not just being controlled but in some cases cured, he says. And targeted treatment – pills swallowed just like aspirin – is far less toxic than traditional IV chemotherapy, mitigating both side effects as well as damage to the body’s healthy cells. The net result? Extended quantity and quality of life.

Targeted treatment works by identifying genetic abnormalities with a simple blood or tissue sample, which then provides doctors with a patient’s genetic roadmap. Treatment is customized accordingly.

Researchers are working to target the “driver mutations” that control the spread of tumors.

In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Erivedge to treat advanced basal cell skin cancer. It was later found to help pancreatic cancer patients.

The remarkably successful drug Gleevec, first approved in 2001 to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), was later approved for some types of stomach cancer. 

In February, the FDA approved Pomalyst (a more powerful form of the drug Revlimid) to treat multiple myeloma, cancer of the plasma cells.

“Multiple myeloma used to be incurable. Now, if you get it early enough you can expect to live a normal life span,” Goldberg says.  

In the cancer clinic of the future, Goldberg predicts there will be few IV stations. Instead, there will be pills dispensed that cancer patients will take at home. And those pills will cure them.