Cancer Treatment - The 4 Standard Methods for Treating Cancer

If you are diagnosed with cancer, it can be very stressful because it is a very scary disease and cn be potentially deadly. However, modern medicine has come a long way in fighting cancer and these new techniques can be applied successfully. It is possible for an individual to be healed of cancer without future re-occurrence. Here are the four traditional ways to treat cancer using standard medical techniques.
The first standard treatment is surgery. This is one of the most common types of treatment that is used in the fight against cancer. During surgery, the doctor will remove the tumor and maybe some of the surrounding tissue. If the tumor is in its early stage of development, this is not generally a complex procedures. However if the cancer has spread over the whole tissue or organ, this can become a more complex procedure because larger parts of the organ may have to be removed. Sometimes in this case, too much of the organ or tissue has cancer cells and it would be impossible to remove this area so other treatments must be used.
The next standard treatment is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can be applied as a standalone treatment. It is also used to help ensure all of the cancer cells are destroyed after surgery is complete. can be applied on its own or after surgery. The goal of chemotherapy is to destroy the cancer cells. Chemotherapy involves the use of medications which can be in the form of pills. Sometimes these drugs are given intravenously. In this case, you may need to visit a cancer treatment center on a regular basis.
The problem with chemotherapy is that it affects not only the tumor cells but also normal fast growing cells in your body. Some example of these types of cells are ones that line your stomach or are in your hair follicles. This is why patients on chemotherapy will experience gastrointestinal and hair growth problems.
The next form of cancer treatment is radiation therapy. In this type of treatment, the tumor cells are targeted with energy with a specific wavelength frequency. What happens is that the radiation will damage the tumor cell's DNA and will make it so that they cannot multiply. The tumor will then shrink and hopefully over time go away. Again the problem with this treatment is that the normal cells around the cancer cells can be damaged as well. The good news is that these cells normally recover once the treatment is complete. It is common for radiation therapy to be applied after surgery and is often combined with chemotherapy as well.
The last treatment we will discuss in this article is biologic therapy. This type of treatment is not as commonly known as the first three treatments. This treatment uses a combination of drugs and other methods to target the tumor and destroy it. Basically this treatment will stop the biological processes that allow the tumor to develop. Biologic therapy can be applied only to certain types of cancer.
The good news is that cancer research is ongoing and new strides are made every day at finding better treatments and maybe someday a cure.
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