Generally, the standard cancer treatments involve one or more of the following methods: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Usually, surgery is the first choice if it’s a solid tumor and cancer cells have not spread to other locations. After the tumor is removed by surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy are usually employed as additional or adjuvant therapies to clean up any potential trace. If it’s not a solid tumor or tumor spread makes it difficult to remove, surgery becomes impractical. In this case, chemotherapy and radiation are used individually or in combination. However, due to the complexity of cancer, in real life, these three methods are often used simultaneously or in tandem in order to achieve the best results possible.
Although the present treatment methods work for cancer, these methods can also cause damages to patients’ normal tissues; they all cause significant side effects. Therefore, any improvement that reduces the side effects while maintaining the efficacy is welcome by clinicians and patients. Improvements in chemotherapy include the use of chemo/radio sensitizers and chemo/radioprotective drugs as adjuvant therapies. In terms of radiotherapy, there have also been tremendous improvements in the technical aspects in recent years.
© Jiajiu Shaw, 2015
Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.
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