The most common types of cancer treatment.

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People are able to live longer, healthier lives as a result of current cancer treatments. Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy are among the treatment options. Your healthcare provider will recommend treatments based on your unique diagnosis, including your cancer type, stage and treatment goals.

 These are some of the most common types of cancer treatments.

Surgery:

 Typically, surgery aims to eliminate all cancer cells and a portion of the healthy tissue that surrounds them (a margin). A pathologist then checks the healthy tissue to make sure there are no cancer cells left. The most common treatment for cancer that has not metastasized is surgery. It’s also the most effective for sending cancer into remission (no signs or symptoms of cancer).  However, this is contingent on your surgeon's ability to safely remove the entire tumor. If a tumor is embedded inside a vital organ or tangled in major blood vessels, for instance, surgery may not be a safe option. Additionally, blood cancers and cancers that have spread cannot be treated with surgery.

 

Radiation therapy:

 

Radiation therapy uses high doses of radiation to destroy cancerous tumors.  The radiation causes cancer cells to break down and die.  Examples include:    Utilizing a machine outside of your body, external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) directs radiation toward a tumor.    Internal radiation therapy: Uses radioactive implants (often tiny pellets) on or near a tumor to kill cancer cells.  During surgery, radiation therapy can also be administered intraoperatively.    Treatment with hyperthermia uses heat to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells. It can also make other cancer treatments more effective.

 Healthcare providers sometimes use radiation treatment only.  Alternately, you might receive radiation in addition to chemotherapy or another treatment. Often, people get this treatment after surgery to destroy any remaining cancer cells.

 Chemotherapy:

 The use of chemotherapy drugs to eradicate cancer cells is known as "chemotherapy." These drugs travel through your bloodstream, destroying fast-growing cells — like cancer cells — along the way.  Less common types go directly into the part of your body with cancer cells.  Chemotherapy drugs, for instance, are sometimes injected directly into the tumor's artery or body cavity by surgeons. Chemotherapy is typically given in conjunction with other treatments, just like radiation. You may require multiple chemo drugs or one single one. Chemotherapy is one of the most common and effective treatments for cancer that has spread (metastasized), returned (recurred) or is likely to come back.

 

Hormone treatment:

 Hormone therapy blocks or reduces hormones that fuel cancer cell growth.  In the presence of sex hormones like androgens or estrogen, some cancers grow more quickly. If your healthcare provider suspects your cancer is responsive to hormones, they’ll check the cells for sites where hormones can bind (hormone receptors).  If you have hormone receptor-positive (HR+) cancer, you may need this type of cancer treatment.

 Providers treat some types of prostate cancer, breast cancer and gynecological cancers (uterine and ovarian cancers) with hormone therapy.

 Immunotherapy:

 

Immunotherapy aids the immune system in recognizing and eliminating cancer cells. Healthy immune systems do a good job of identifying threats, like germs, and getting rid of them.  Cancer cells thrive because they are able to hide from your immune system, which prevents your immune system from attacking them. Immunotherapy can thwart the body's natural defenses against cancer cells. For advanced or recurrent cancer, this is typically used in conjunction with other cancer treatments. New immunotherapy treatments are being tested and developed as part of some of the most promising research into potential future treatments for cancer. 

Targeted therapy:

 

Targeted therapy treatments interfere with specific processes that allow some cancer cells to thrive.  Cancer cells develop and multiply because of genetic mutations (changes) in their DNA.  The mutations often cause cancer cells to make abnormal proteins that spur cancer cell growth.  Drugs for targeted therapy target specific proteins and stop them from fueling cancer cell growth. If you have cancer cells that have certain mutations, you might get this kind of treatment. Scientists continue to develop new targeted therapies as they learn more about the mutations unique to various cancer types.

 

Ablation therapy:

 

Ablation therapy kills cancer cells with extremely hot or cold energy. Even though there aren't any actual cuts, some of them are referred to as "surgery" because they allow doctors to remove tissue with almost surgical precision. These are some:    Cryoablation: This treatment freezes and kills cancer cells with extreme cold. Cryotherapy and cryosurgery are other names for it.    Laser therapy: Uses hot, high-powered light beams to cut out cancer cells.  Also known as laser surgery.    Powerful electrical currents are used in electrosurgery to remove cancer cells or destroy tissue. Examples include fulguration (radiofrequency ablation) and microwave ablation.

 Healthcare providers most often use ablation to shrink tumors.  This can relieve symptoms or help you live longer.

 

Transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (bone marrow): 

Immature blood cells that are (or could become) cancerous are replaced with healthy cells through a stem cell transplant. There are two main types:

    

Autologous: Uses healthy stem cells from your own body to replace cancerous or damaged ones.

Allogeneic: Replaces your stem cells with those from a donor.  The donor must have blood similar to yours, which means donors are usually close relatives.

 Healthcare providers use stem cell transplants to treat blood cancers that haven’t responded to other treatments or that have returned after remission.  You may need a transplant to replenish your blood cells after receiving treatments that destroy cancerous stem cells, like radiation and chemotherapy.

 

Clinical trials:

 

New cancer treatments are put through their paces in a study known as a clinical trial. Current treatment approaches and medications that are now considered best practice were once only available in clinical trials.

 Your healthcare provider may recommend you take part in a clinical trial if standard therapies haven’t helped or aren’t an option.  They may feel that a newer treatment may be more effective given emerging research about your cancer type.