Most Effective Cancer Treatment Options
By Latest developments in medical science have led to the discovery of many different types of cancer treatments. The kind of treatment your doctor decides to go ahead with will depend entirely on the type of cancer you have and how advanced it is.
Most patients need a specific combination of treatments while some may need just one kind of treatment. It is normal to feel confused and overwhelmed by all the new jargon and terminologies that come your way when you hear about different cancer treatment options. Here is a list of the most effective cancer treatment options and what they entail:
Surgery
Here, the surgeon operates to remove cancer-affected tissues from the body. Depending on your type of cancer, the surgery can be used to:
– Remove an entire tumor that could be contaminating a certain part of the body
– Debulk a part of the tumor to help other treatments work more effectively. This is usually done when removing the entire tumor could damage an organ or the body.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses powerful doses of radiation to kill cancer cells or shrink and slow their growth by damaging their DNA. But it’s important to know this treatment doesn’t work right away. It takes days or weeks of multiple sittings before the DNA is damaged enough for the cancer cells to die.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that is used to strengthen your immune system in its fight against cancer cells. There are various kinds of immunotherapies that are used against various kinds of cancers.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy involves the injection of drugs and strong medication to kill cancer cells. It works towards slowing or stopping the growth of these cells and can be used to treat cancer and lessen the chances of it returning. Chemotherapy is also used to shrink tumors that could be causing discomfort and pain.
Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy is a cancer treatment that targets the proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread using small-molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies.
Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy is usually used to slow down or stop the growth of prostate and breast cancers that depend on hormones to grow and multiply.
Precision Medicine
Precision medicine allows doctors to develop an in-depth understanding of the genetic makeup of a patient’s disease and select treatments that would work best.