Cancer: Treatments

How is cancer treated?

Treatment of cancer begins with seeking regular medical care throughout your life. Regular medical care allows a health care professional to best provide early screening tests, such as mammography, Pap smears, digital rectal exams, and fecal occult blood tests. Regular medical care also provides an opportunity for your health care professional to evaluate symptoms and your risks of developing cancer, and promptly order diagnostic testing. These measures may increase the chances of detecting cancer in its earliest, most curable stage.

The goal of treatment of cancer is to permanently cure the cancer or to bring about a complete remission of the disease. Remission means that there is no longer any sign of the disease in the body, although it may recur or relapse later.

Cancer treatment plans use a multifaceted approach that is individualized to the type of cancer and stage of advancement; your age, medical history, and coexisting diseases or conditions; and other factors.

Treatment for cancer is often best planned and delivered by a team of specialists in cancer care. These specialists generally include medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, and registered nurses who specialize in cancer care.

Cancer treatment may include some combination of the following:

• Chemotherapy

• Dietary counseling to help people with cancer maintain their strength and nutritional status

• Pain medications

• Palliative care to improve the overall quality of life for families and patients with serious diseases

• Participation in a clinical trial to test promising new therapies and treatments for cancer

• Physical therapy to help strengthen the body, increase alertness, reduce fatigue, and improve functional ability during and after cancer treatment

• Radiation therapy

• Regular follow-up care to monitor your treatment and progress and to address any problems or complications promptly

• Surgery to remove a cancerous tumor or to treat complications of cancer, such as an intestinal obstruction

Complementary treatments

Some complementary treatments may help some people to better deal with cancer and its treatments. These treatments, sometimes referred to as alternative therapies, are used in conjunction with traditional medical treatments. Complementary treatments are not meant to substitute for full medical care.

Complementary treatments may include:

• Acupuncture

• Massage therapy

• Yoga

Hospice care

In cases in which cancer has progressed to an advanced stage and has become unresponsive to treatment, the goal of treatment shifts away from curing the disease and focuses on treating the person. The goal of hospice care is to help people in their last phases of an incurable disease to live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice care involves medically controlling pain and other symptoms while providing psychological and spiritual support as well as services to support the patient’s family.

What are the potential complications of cancer?

Complications of cancer are serious and life threatening. They include:

• Complications from treatment, such as serious infections and suppression of the immune system

• Metastasis (spread) of a primary cancer to another tissue or organ in the body

• Organ failure

• Recurrence of cancer after treatment

• Severe pain

You can best treat cancer and lower your risk of complications by following the treatment plan that you and your health care team design specifically for you.