Email this pageCancer Treatment
No one therapy will work for all types of cancer. There are more than 200 different types of cancer and they must all be tackled individually.
Today's treatments include:
- Surgery
- Radiation Therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Immunotherapy
- Apheresis
- Hormone Therapy
- Blood and Marrow Transplantation
- For information on treatment for children, see our
Pediatric Hematology / Oncology section.
In some cases, only one therapy may be appropriate. In others, an integrated strategy may combine more than one of these therapies, given at the same time or one following the other.
The treatment option that is best for you depends on several factors, including your:
- Medical history
- Current state of health
- Type of cancer, site of origin, stage and extent of spread
- Goal of therapy
- When a cancer is localized, the usual treatment is either surgery or radiation or a combination of both. Once a cancer has spread, the primary tumor is generally removed surgically, and radiation and chemotherapy are used to kill the remaining cancer cells.
How often you have your treatment and how long it takes will depend mainly on:
- The type of cancer you have
- The drugs you are taking
- How well the disease responds to the drugs
- Any side effects the drugs may cause
Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most common adverse effects of cancer treatment, yet it's also one of the most overlooked.
Did You Know?
While cure rates differ dramatically by cancer type and staging, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation will effectively bring about long-term cures for about 55% of cancer patients.
