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Treatment of Cancer
 There are four major types of cancer treatment: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. These therapies can be used either alone or
in combination with each other. Location, size and stage of the tumor, as well as your overall health, determine which treatment or treatments you will receive. Many new treatments, including cancer vaccines and gene
therapy, are being studied in clinical trials.
Current methods of cancer treatment:
- Surgery is
the oldest form of cancer treatment. About 60%
of cancer patients will undergo some sort of
surgery, either by itself or in combination with
other therapies.
- Chemotherapy uses
powerful drugs to kill cancer cells, control
their growth, or to relieve pain symptoms.
- Radiation uses
large doses of high-energy beams or particles
to destroy cancer cells in a specifically targeted
area.
- Immunotherapy,
also known as biologic therapy, stimulates the
body's own defense systems to fight cancer.
- Gene
Therapy identifies missing or defective
genes that cause cancer or increase cancer
risk, and replaces them with normal copies.
Clinical Trials, in which new treatment methods are tested on human subjects, can provide options for patients whose cancer has not responded to standard therapies.
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