Which way to go when treating cancer ?
There are a number of possible
treatments for
cancer. Each type of cancer has its own specific set of medically accepted treatments. Additionally, experimental treatments for
cancer are continually being developed. Western medical treatments for cancer include surgical excision or debulking, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, thermal therapy, hormonal therapy, and the newly evolving gene therapy. Complimentary and
alternative medicine practitioners have a host of alternate recommendations for cancer. All medical models encourage optimum
nutrition and emotional well being. Additionally, since
cancer survivors are susceptible to recurrence of the disease, continued close medical follow up is essential. Finally, some individuals with cancer elect not to undergo treatment at all, for individual reasons.
Surgery
Surgical treatments of cancer are generally designed to remove all of the
primary cancer. If a particular type of cancer is slow growing and confined to a specific area, surgical removal of the primary cancer may represent a cure. Common examples include early forms of prostate, colon, thyroid, cervical and endometrial cancers.
Surgery might also be used to remove metastatic lesions in attempt to slow the progress of the disease, or alleviate symptoms caused by their particular location. For example, surgical excision is used to debulk or reduce the size of the primary tumour or a metastasis that may be affecting other organs, such as an abdominal cancer that is blocking the small intestine.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy uses high dose, focused radiation beams to kill rapidly growing
tumour cells. "Local radiation" uses x-ray beams from two different sources to focus on tumour cells in a circumscribed area. "Whole body radiation" is often used in certain types of cancer of the blood-forming organs, such as leukemias. This type of treatment may require a subsequent bone marrow transplant procedure to restore the individual’s capacity to produce blood cells. Another form of radiation treatment, called brachytherapy, makes use of implanted radioactive "seeds" within cancerous tissue to kill the tissue locally. Prostate cancer is an example of where
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