Cancer Case - Treatment of Cancer (Part III)

There are four methods widely used for cancer treatment
They are:
1) Surgery
2) Radiation Treatment
3) Chemotherapy
4) Immunotherapy

1) Surgery

Surgery is used for cancer treatment for the following purpose

Preventive (prophylactic) Surgery
Preventive surgery is done to remove body tissue that is not malignant (cancerous) but is likely to become malignant

Diagnostic Surgery
This type of surgery is used to get a tissue sample to tell whether or not cancer is present or to tell what type of cancer it is.

Staging Surgery
Staging surgery is done to find out how much cancer there is and how far it has spread.

Curative Surgery
Curative surgery is done when a tumor appears to be confined to one area and it is likely that all of the tumor can be removed

Debulking (cytoreductive) Surgery
Surgery is done to debulk a tumor when removing the entire tumor would cause too much damage to an organ or near-by tissues

Palliative Surgery
This type of surgery is used to treat complications of advanced cancer. It is not intended to cure the cancer.

Supportive Surgery
Supportive surgery is used to help with other types of treatment.

Restorative (reconstructive) Surgery
This type of surgery is used to restore a person’s appearance or the function of an organ or body part after primary surgery.

2)Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy attacks cancer cells that are dividing, but it can also affect dividing cells of normal tissues. The damage to normal cells is what causes side effects. Each time radiation therapy is given it involves a balance between destroying the cancer cells and sparing the normal cells.
Radiation used for cancer treatment is called ionizing radiation because it forms ions in the cells of the tissues it passes through, as it dislodges electrons from atoms. (Ions are atoms that have acquired an electric charge through the gain or loss of an electron.) This can kill cells or change genes.
Other forms of radiation, such as radio waves, microwaves, and light waves are called non-ionizing. They don’t have as much energy and are not able to ionize cells.
Ionizing radiation can be sorted into 2 major types:
photons (x-rays and gamma rays), which are most widely used
particle radiation (electrons, protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and beta particles)

3) Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, or "chemo" for short, most often means taking medicines, or drugs, to treat cancer. You might take these drugs before or after surgery, with radiation (x-ray) treatment or you might take the medicines alone.

Most chemo drugs are given in one of the following ways:
You might simply swallow a pill. If your chemo is a pill or liquid, you can often take it at home, but you need to follow your doctor's directions.
Chemo can be given like a flu shot. The shots may be given in your doctor's office, a hospital, a clinic, or at home.
Most often, chemo is given right into your veins through a needle or tiny plastic tube. This is called an IV (intravenous) injection.

4) Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy (also known as biologic therapy or biotherapy) is treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight disease, including cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways:
stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter
giving you immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins Immunotherapy is sometimes used by itself to treat cancer, but it is most often used along with or after another type of treatment to add to its effects

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