How Is Cancer Treated?

Some patients begin cancer treatment immediately following diagnosis. In other cases, patients can wait. If treatment is risky or your cancer is not developing very quickly, your healthcare provider might suggest watchful waiting, which means your condition will be monitored over time before deciding if treatment should be started.

Your healthcare provider will determine the best approach based on your specific cancer and other health factors.

The most common treatments for cancer are

• Surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Any combination of those three.

Other treatments include immunotherapy/biotherapy, targeted therapy . . .

Surgery often is used initially to remove tumors. Depending on the type of cancer, surgery may be performed one time or in several stages. Reconstructive surgery also may be used at this time or later in the treatment process.

Chemotherapy is the use of medicine or chemicals to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be given in different ways. Some chemotherapy medicines are delivered into your veins and take several hours to be given. Other medicines are injected with a needle or given orally in the form of pills or capsules.

The amount of time taken to receive your chemotherapy also varies greatly. Some medicines involve several long treatments over a few days for several weeks. Others involve only one treatment per month.

Traditional chemotherapy can be very effective; however, healthy cells often are killed along with cancer cells. Radiation therapy uses radiation to kill cancer cells. As with chemotherapy, radiation therapy can be administered over several treatments and can kill healthy cells. When healthy cells die, side effects may occur that can be challenging to treat.