Cancer patients are often succumbed to various cancer treatment options. Although there are many cancer treatments, the type of treatment that you have will depend on the type of cancer you have and how advanced it is.
There are some patients with cancer that would only require one treatment while other patients have a combination of treatments, such as surgery with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, or even immunotherapy, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy.
When you need treatment for cancer, you have a lot to learn and to think about.
Here are various cancer treatments that a cancer patient might undergo.
Chemotherapy works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells, which grow and divide quickly. Chemotherapy is used to treat cancer, lessen the chance it will return, or stop or slow its growth and ease cancer symptoms by shrinking tumors that are causing pain and other problems.
4. Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system.
It is a type of biological therapy. Biological therapy is a type of treatment that uses substances made from living organisms to treat cancer.
5. Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy is the foundation of precision medicine. It is a type of cancer treatment that targets the changes in cancer cells that help them grow, divide, and spread. As researchers learn more about the cell changes that drive cancer, they are better able to design promising therapies that target these changes or block their effects.
6. Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that slows or stops the growth of cancer that uses hormones to grow. Hormone therapy is also called hormonal therapy, hormone treatment, or endocrine therapy.
7. Stem Cell Transplant
Stem cell transplants are procedures that restore blood-forming stem cells in people who have had their cells destroyed by the very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy that are used to treat certain cancers.
Blood-forming stem cells are important because they grow into different types of blood cells. The main types of blood cells are:
- White blood cells, which are part of your immune system and are responsible to help your body fight infection,
- Red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout your body and
- Platelets, which help the blood clot.
For cancer patients it is normal to feel overwhelmed and confused. But, talking with your doctor and learning about the types of treatment you may have can help you feel more in control about your health.
Image Credits: radonc, memorialcare.org, socialsciences, cancercenter, maquet
