pune when working professional manisha 43 learned that she had stage 4 lung cancer the world collapsed around her leading a tobaccofree and healthy lifestyle she only had persistent cough and backache for the last few months acting on the advice of her oncologist she tried targeted therapy to help her avoid chemotherapy manisha did well for almost two years before her cancer progressed she is now on another oral drug being on an oral tablet has helped me avoid chemotherapy besides i havent encountered any major sideeffects this helped me to continue my job without affecting my daily routine she saida sizable number of cancer patients are living a nearnormal life without taking chemotherapy by opting for oralintravenous anticancer drugs called targeted therapiestargeted therapies now cover almost all cancers depending on the cancer type and stage over 50 of patients are eligible to avail the benefits of targeted therapies experts saidtargeted therapies are currently the focus of anticancer treatment they are a cornerstone of precision drug a form of medicine that uses information about a persons genes and proteins to prevent diagnose and treat the disease said oncologist reshma puranik of avinash cancer clinictill the late 1990s anticancer treatment mainly consisted of chemotherapy drugs that worked by killing the cancer cells hormonal therapy for breast cancer was one of the earliest targeted therapies discovered puranik saidconsultant haematologist sweta lunkad said targeted therapies have changed the way we treat blood cancers diseases like acute myeloid lymphoma which were death statements for the elderly are now curablewith biomarkerdriven targeted therapy the survival rates have drastically improved to more than three years in many patients said puranik