Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world today. Every year, millions of individuals worldwide are diagnosed with cancer, and more than half of them will succumb to the disease.

Between 2008-2020 breast cancer cases doubled worldwide. In 2020, breast cancer had the highest incidence among all cancers.

This alarming upsurge disproportionately affected our local rural community, which prompted us to address the roadblocks in cancer therapy.

Current chemotherapeutic drugs have poor specificity. In the long run, this leads to toxic side effects, drug resistance and the necessity for recurring drug administration.

Targeted therapies are advancements over traditional chemotherapeutics and only affect cancer cells which overexpress the target marker. However they lack additional checkpoints to ensure specificity.

What if we improved targeted therapy with an extra checkpoint?