Healthcare providers sometimes use radiation treatment only. Or you may receive radiation in combination chicken road with other treatments, like chemotherapy. Often, people get this treatment after surgery to destroy any remaining cancer cells. Hormone therapy blocks or reduces hormones that fuel cancer cell growth.
The goal of cancer treatment is to cure your cancer and help you live a typical life span. That may or may not be possible depending on your specific situation. If a cure is not possible, treatments are used to help shrink your cancer or slow its growth. Those treatments may help you live without symptoms for as long as possible.
Current treatment approaches and medications that are now considered best practice were once only available in clinical trials. Like radiation, you usually get chemo in combination with other treatments. You may get a single chemo drug or you may need different ones. Surgery is the most common treatment for cancer that hasn’t spread (metastasized).
- Your doctor may recommend chemo, hormone, or targeted therapy.
- Sometimes, ongoing treatment is about providing symptom relief.
- But this depends on whether your surgeon can safely remove the entire tumor.
Treatment Details
- Current cancer treatments are helping people live longer, fuller lives.
- A doctor will first perform genetic or biomarker testing to determine whether you’re eligible for a particular targeted therapy.
- Some treatments may be given to reduce side effects of other treatments and relieve symptoms caused by the cancer or its treatment.
- If you have curable cancer, chemo may even be used to cure it.
Talk to your cancer doctor about the risks of your treatment plan and how you can avoid them. Ask your healthcare provider what your course of treatment will involve, including how long before you’ll know if it’s working. Providers treat some types of prostate cancer, breast cancer and gynecological cancers (uterine and ovarian cancers) with hormone therapy.
Targeted therapy
Many people with cancer are living past the five-year survival mark. This is an important milestone because most cancers that remain in remission for five years don’t return. Chemotherapy drugs destroy fast-growing cells in the body. The goal is to lower the total number of cancer cells in your body and reduce the chances that the cancer will spread (metastasize). The main goal is to remove tumors, tissue, or areas with cancer cells, such as lymph nodes.
Common types of cancer treatment
Cancer treatment includes surgery, radiation, medicines and other therapies. The goal of cancer treatment is to cure or shrink a cancer or stop it from spreading. Talk to your cancer doctor about the treatment options available for your type and stage of cancer. Your doctor can explain the risks and benefits of each treatment and their side effects. Side effects are how your body reacts to drugs or other treatments. Current cancer treatments reflect 250 years of research into the most effective approaches to fighting this disease.
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Some treatments may be given to reduce side effects of other treatments and relieve symptoms caused by the cancer or its treatment. This is called palliative care and can be given at any stage of your cancer treatment. There are more than 100 types of cancer (not including subtypes). No one can replace your healthcare provider’s guidance when it comes to explaining your options if you’ve just learned you have cancer.
Maintaining your quality of life is an essential part of your treatment. A doctor will first perform genetic or biomarker testing to determine whether you’re eligible for a particular targeted therapy. Targeted therapies are part of an approach known as personalized medicine or precision medicine. They block the molecular pathways that are critical to tumor growth. Radiation itself isn’t painful, but afterward, you may have pain, fatigue, and skin rashes around the place you got the treatment.
It’s also the most effective for sending cancer into remission (no signs or symptoms of cancer). But this depends on whether your surgeon can safely remove the entire tumor. For example, surgery may not be a safe option if a tumor is embedded inside a vital organ or tangled in major blood vessels. And surgery can’t get rid of blood cancers or cancers that have spread. You may receive immunotherapy alone or with other types of treatment. Chemotherapy can sometimes cause long-lasting side effects, like infertility and nerve damage.
Your doctor may have recommended a treatment plan, and you might worry about what’s involved and how it will make you feel. Yes, you have a say in your cancer treatment, including making the decision to delay treatment or not have treatment at all. You can also seek a second opinion from another qualified doctor. Learn how hormone therapy treats prostate and breast cancer. This therapy may be used alongside other treatments, including radiation or surgery.
Primary treatment
You may receive one treatment or a combination of treatments. Your cancer treatment plan may be based on your type of cancer and your situation. This common treatment uses high-energy particles or waves to destroy or damage cancer cells to keep them from spreading. It might be your only treatment, or you might get it along with surgery or chemotherapy. With this type of treatment, you swallow a drug in liquid, tablet, or capsule form at home.
To learn more about how specific cancers are treated, see the cancer treatment information for adult and childhood cancers. Our list of Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Treatment may help you talk with your doctor and learn more about your treatment options. Find basic information about cancer treatment and learn more about what to expect as a Memorial Sloan Kettering patient or caregiver. You may get this type of treatment if you have cancer cells with certain mutations.
Scientists continue to develop new targeted therapies as they learn more about the mutations unique to various cancer types. 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. Targeted therapy drugs home in on the specific proteins, preventing them from fueling cancer cell growth. Your doctor may recommend one type of cancer drug or a combination of drugs alongside surgery, radiation, or other types of treatment.
