It is important to know the main treatments for cancer and possible side-effects. Cancer treatments are typically a mix of different treatment procedures like surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, medications, etc., aimed at curing cancer, shrinking the tumor, or stopping its profression.

While there may be different treatments available, the main treatments for cancer for a patient will depend on many factors like the stage or type of cancer, the patient’s overall health, and individual patient preferences. To find the best course of treatment for a patient, the doctor will discuss the various treatment processes with them, weighing the pros and cons of each and highlight the risks involved. Most people have a combination of the main treatments for cancer like radiation, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery.

Which are the key treatment procedures for treating cancers?

• Surgery is aimed at removing the tumor causing cancer or eliminate as many cancerous cells as possible. One needs to know what to expect from their surgeon regarding the surgery, what is likely to happen during and after the procedure.
• Chemotherapy is directed at using medications for destroying the cancerous cells. However, the patient must be informed about the possible side-effects of chemotherapy like nausea, vomiting, appetite, and weight loss, etc.
• Radiation therapy will make use of high-powered energy rays like protons and X-rays for killing cancer cells. This is provided by a machine externally where it is called external beam radiation or this may be put inside the body where it is called brachytherapy.
• Immunotherapy is one of the main cancer treatments that strengthen the immune system for fighting this deadly disease. It is also called biological therapy and focuses on using the patient’s immune system to detect cancer and then attack it.
• Targeted therapy targets changes within cancerous cells allowing them to grow, divide further and thereby spread even more.
• Hormone therapy will aim at stopping or slowing down the growth of prostate and breast cancers that need hormones for growth.
• Stem cell transplant is a procedure for restoring the blood-forming cells that have been destroyed within the bodies of cancer patients due to the very high dose of radiation or chemotherapy. There are different types of stem cell transplants and they can have side-effects that a patient should be made aware of. Bone marrow transplant will either use stem cells from the patient or from a donor.
• Precision medicine will help a doctor choose a treatment this is most likely to aid a patient suffering from cancer, based upon the disease’s genetic understanding.
• Cryoablation is a treatment for killing cancer cells using cold; in this, a wand-like thin needle is inserted by the doctor into the patient’s skin and directly into the tumor causing cancer. Then, a gas gets pumped into this cryoprobe for freezing the tissue. The tissue is then allowed to thaw. This freezing-cum-thawing procedure has to be repeated multiple times in one session to destroy cancer cells.
• Radiofrequency ablation will use electrical energy for heating up cancer cells leading to their eventual death. Here, the doctor will insert a needle into the patient’s skin and into the cancerous tissue. Then, high-frequency energy gets passed through this needle and it leads to heating up of the surrounding tissues, destroying the nearby cancerous cells.
• Finally, clinical trials are another means for treating cancer which aims at finding new ways to tackle this disease.