What are antibody-drug conjugates and how do they work against cancer

A challenge of cancer treatment is doing our best to ensure that the benefits a medicine brings outweigh the burden of unwanted side effects. Chemotherapy, for example, is a powerful treatment that kills cancer cells, but it damages healthy cells too, leading to side effects like hair loss and tiredness. Monoclonal antibodies are also used to treat cancer and are capable of a more targeted attack on tumour cells. What if we could combine the targeting power of monoclonal antibodies and the toxic properties