Benefits of Biomedical Research Using Animals Essay

Benefits of Biomedical Research Using Animals - Essay Example Breast cancer is the most common in American women (American Cancer Society). On the other hand, I went through the signs and symptoms to understand what my aunt was experiencing. The website listed symptoms like swelling in parts of the breast, irritation of the skin, pain in the breast or nipple, and sometimes discharge from the nipple (American Cancer Society). Moreover, I also learned of how cells of cancer grow in an uncontrollable manner and pose the risk of spreading to other parts of the body in what is known as metastasis. After a visit to the oncologist, my aunt level of cancer was said to be a stage that could not be controlled through surgical means. Therefore, the only option viable at the time was the use of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy helps in reducing the growth of cancer cells in the body (American Cancer Society). My aunt was placed on a combination of chemotherapy tamoxifen and Herceptin. However, chemotherapy has been associated with the side effects in human thanks to the recent development that has enabled development of drugs that mitigates side effects. One of such drugs that my aunt had to rely on was Herceptin. The drug acts by focusing on specific genetic alteration and hence has enabled in the reduction of side effects such as hair loss and nausea that is typical in another form of therapies (UCLA). The efficacies of these drugs that have been helpful to my aunt have been proved through animal research. The development of these drugs has been possible through intensive research that has been done on animals (rats) (Animal Research Info). It is the identification of estrogen receptor (ER) in the laboratory that has made it possible to describe the target site specificity of estrogen action in breast cancer (Jensen and Jordan 1). In the 1970s, there was consideration of the use of ER as a target for therapeutics.