Cancer Treatments
Overview of Cancer Treatments
Choice of cancer treatment is influenced by several factors, including the specific characteristics of your cancer; your overall condition; and whether the goal of treatment is to cure your cancer, keep your cancer from spreading, or to relieve the symptoms caused by cancer. Depending on these factors, you may receive one or more of the following:
One or more treatment modalities may be used to provide you with the most effective treatment. Increasingly, it is common to use several treatment modalities together (concurrently) or in sequence with the goal of preventing recurrence. This is referred to as multi-modality treatment of the cancer.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy and You: Support for People With Cancer
Information about what to expect during chemotherapy and what patients can do to take care of themselves during and after treatment.
Chemotherapy Side Effects Fact Sheets
Chemotherapy fact sheets with clear medical advice from doctors and nurses, and practical tips from patients to help you manage side effects.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation Therapy for Cancer
A fact sheet that defines the different types of radiation therapy and discusses scientific advances that improve the effectiveness of this treatment.
Proton Therapy for Cancer: A New Technology Brief
Discussion of how proton therapy works, some limits of the current knowledge base about its use, and directions for additional research.
Radiation Therapy and You: Support for People With Cancer
Information about what to expect during radiation therapy, including the general effects of treatment and how to deal with specific side effects.
What To Know About Brachytherapy (A Type of Internal Radiation Therapy)
An easy-to-read fact sheet that helps radiation therapy patients understand brachytherapy, a type of internal internal radiation therapy.
What To Know About External Beam Radiation Therapy
An easy-to-read fact sheet that helps radiation therapy patients understand external beam radiation therapy.
Radiation Therapy Side Effects Fact Sheets
Radiation therapy fact sheets that help patients understand their treatment and manage side effects. The fact sheets (also available in audio) have patient testimonials, tips from healthcare providers, and questions to ask providers.
Radiation Therapy Audio Files
A list of a series of audio interviews on topics related to side effects of radiation therapy.
Surgery
Surgery can be used to diagnose, treat, or even help prevent cancer in some cases. Most people with cancer will have some type of surgery. It often offers the greatest chance for cure, especially if the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.
Please see the American Cancer Society's website for additional information.
Other Treatment Methods
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Angiogenesis Inhibitors Therapy
A fact sheet that describes the process of eliminating the blood supply to tumors. Lists the cancers in which this approach is being tested.
Biological Therapies for Cancer: Questions and Answers
A fact sheet that provides an overview of how the immune system functions and describes the actions of biological therapies.
Biological Therapy
An introduction to biological therapy to help patients prepare to receive it for cancer treatment or managing side effects.
Bone Marrow Transplantation and Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation
A fact sheet that explains the step-by-step procedures of two types of transplantations used with high-dose chemotherapy, including their risks and benefits.
Gene Therapy for Cancer: Questions and Answers
A fact sheet that discusses research with genetic material in developing cancer therapies, including risks, benefits, and ethical issues.
Hyperthermia in Cancer Treatment: Questions and Answers
A fact sheet that defines hyperthermia (treating tumors with heat) and its side effects.
Lasers in Cancer Treatment: Questions and Answers
A fact sheet that describes use of high-intensity light in cancer treatment, its advantages and disadvantages, and types of procedures that use it.
Photodynamic Therapy for Cancer
A fact sheet that explains photodynamic therapy, how it is administered, and indications and side effects of treatment.
Targeted Cancer Therapies
This NCI fact sheet describes targeted cancer therapies, which are drugs that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules involved in carcinogenesis (the process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells) and tumor growth1.
