Cancer Treatment Options
With all the cancer
treatments available, understanding
breast cancer is one way to help
prevent breast cancer. Getting good health
advice is essential for heatlhy living.
Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation
therapy or other methods. The choice of therapy depends upon the location
and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease.
Surgery
If the tumor is localized, surgery is often the preferred
treatment. Example procedures include prostatectomy for prostate cancer
and mastectomy for breast cancer. The goal of the surgery can be either
the removal of only the tumor, or the entire organ.
Since a single cancer cell can grow into a sizeable
tumor, removing only the tumor leads to a greater chance of recurrence.
A margin of healthy tissue is often resected to allow for small amounts
of residual tumor cells.
In addition to removal of the primary tumor, surgery
is often necessary for staging, e.g. determining the extent of the
disease and whether there has been metastasis to regional lymph nodes.
Staging determines the prognosis and the need for adjuvant therapy.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs
that can destroy cancer cells. These drugs often are called "anticancer"
drugs. Normal cells grow and die in a controlled way. When cancer
occurs, cells in the body that are not normal keep dividing and forming
more cells without control.
Anticancer drugs destroy cancer cells by stopping
them from growing or multiplying. Healthy cells can also be harmed,
especially those that divide quickly. Harm to healthy cells is what
causes side effects.
These cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy.
Because some drugs work better together than alone, two or more drugs
are often given at the same time. This is called combination chemotherapy.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy, x-ray
therapy, or irradiation) is the use of a certain type of energy (called
ionizing radiation) to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation
therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated (the "target
tissue") by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible
for these cells to continue to grow and divide.
Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal
cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation
and function properly. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage
as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy
tissue.
Radiation therapy may be used to treat almost every
type of solid tumor, including cancers of the brain, breast, cervix,
larynx, lung, pancreas, prostate, skin, spine, stomach, uterus, or
soft tissue sarcomas.
Radiation can also be used to treat leukemia and lymphoma
(cancers of the blood-forming cells and lymphatic system, respectively).
Radiation dose to each site depends on a number of factors, including
the type of cancer and whether there are tissues and organs nearby
that may be damaged by radiation.
Cancer Clinical trials
Clinical trials, also called experimental cancer treatment
or research studies, test new treatments in people with cancer. The
goal of this research is to find better ways to treat cancer and help
cancer patients. Clinical trials test many types of treatment such
as new drugs, new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy, new
combinations of treatments, or new methods such as gene therapy.
A clinical trial is one of the final stages of a long
and careful cancer research process. The search for new treatments
begins in the laboratory, where scientists first develop and test
new ideas.
If an approach seems promising, the next step may
be testing a treatment in animals to see how it affects cancer in
a living being and whether it has harmful effects. Of course, treatments
that work well in the lab or in animals do not always work well in
people. Studies are done with cancer patients to find out whether
promising treatments are safe and effective.
The patients who take part may be helped personally
by the treatment(s) they receive. They get up-to-date care from cancer
experts, and they receive either a new treatment being tested or the
best available standard treatment for their cancer. Of course, there
is no guarantee that a new treatment being tested or a standard treatment
will produce good results.
New treatments also may have unknown risks. But if
a new treatment proves effective or more effective than standard treatment,
study patients who receive it may be among the first to benefit. Some
patients receive only standard treatment and benefit from it.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a
group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products
that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine.
It is important that the same scientific evaluation
that is used to assess conventional approaches can be used to evaluate
CAM therapies.
In the United States, current trials are underway
to test the following:
- acupuncture to reduce the symptoms of advanced colorectal cancer,
- combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy with or without
shark cartilage in the treatment of patients who have non-small
cell lung cancer that cannot be removed by surgery,
- hyperbaric oxygen therapy with laryngectomy patients (people who
have had an operation to remove all or part of the larynx (voice
box)),
- massage therapy for cancer-related fatigue,
- chemotherapy compared with pancreatic enzyme therapy plus specialized
diet for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and mistletoe extract
and chemotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors.
Articles on Alternative Cancer Treatment
Syndicate these articles
Surviving
Radiation: The Wise Woman Way
We are adapted to survive mild exposures to radiation. After all,
the sun is a kind of controlled nuclear bomb and it releases a lot
of radiation. Of course, this radiation, and man-made radiation, can
also cause cancer and a host of short- and long-term health problems.
The
Best Cancer Treatment Options
What, specifically, do I recommend you take to overcome your cancer
and get cancer-free. So, you have gotten a start on changing your
lifestyle -- diet, exercise and supplements. You have started on a
program to stimulate your immune system. What's next?
Now
That You Have Cancer, What's Your Strategy?
Your doctor has said the C word and you're puzzling: What do I do
now? There seem to be so many options. The doctor is pressing me to
get on with the surgery and chemotherapy/ radiation. Help!
Orthodox Cancer Treatment
There are four main types of treatment in conventional cancer treatment.
Taking these treatments is no guarantee that the cancer will not return.
They do not involve looking for or eliminating any causes. To this
extent orthodox Western medical approaches to cancer are only palliative.
Philosophy and Cancer
Treatment
Cancer cannot be treated effectively under a philosophy of reductionism.
Scientific cancer research has failed to find a cure because it is
looking in the wrong places with the wrong tools. Cancer needs to
be understood as a "whole" disease in relation to each individual's
experience and the culture of which they are part.
New Energy Medicine
and Cancer
Cancer is a disease that stems partly from the products of the mechanistic,
anthropomorphic and exploitative philosophy at the heart of our culture,
which we tend to ignore. Its effective treatment demands that we see
ourselves in a different way and act accordingly.
Changing Paradigms
in Cancer
There are different perceptions of the world at work speaking incompatible
languages. These have deep roots in our philosophy. This gap is presently
condemning millions of people world-wide to suffer treatments for
cancer that are often as destructive as the disease itself.
The Cancer Research Industry
Many volunteers world-wide commit themselves to raising funds for
cancer research and cancer charities. Many hundreds of thousands more
work in the industry as carers, or researching, prescribing, diagnosing
and manufacturing drugs. Huge companies spend fortunes on cancer research.
After so long and so many billions spent what exactly has cancer research
revealed?
The Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel
and the FDA
The corruption of undisclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical
companies by supposedly unbiased researchers along with the staggering
cost involved in bringing new drugs to market, which conveniently
eliminates competition from all but the cartel heavyweights has been
sparingly reported in the mainstream press.
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