FDA approved cancer treatments

There are currently four FDA approved treatments for glioblastoma multiforme. They are all drugs that cover a pretty broad aspect of cancer mechanisms: Temozolomide is one of them and it is an alkylating agent, meaning it attaches an alkyl group to the guanine of DNA and effectively disrupts its ability to copy itself. The problem with this approach is that it will affect more than just cancer cells and this lack of specificity makes it detrimental to the rest of the body as well.  Bevacizumab is another FDA approved treatment for GBM. It inhibits angiogenesis, which means that it is good for stopping the metastasis of cancer. It is actually considered a relatively safe drug in general, but there are definitely still side effects including blood-clotting, allergic reactions, retinal detachment, etc. It slows tumor growth in GBM patients, but it doesn’t increase the survival rate. Lomustine and Carmustine are the other two FDA approved GBM treatments and they are both alkylating agents as well. With all of these treatments in mind, brute-force approaches seem to be the only thing they will approve, and specificity is not really brought into the picture. Without that I believe that these treatments will only briefly prolong the inevitable.