Surgery
Surgery as a treatment involves the removal cancerous tumour and the tissue around it containing cancer cells, thereby helps contain the spread of the disease. surgery was the principal method of treating cancer until recently and is still the most common. Surgery is most effective when the cancer is small, contained to an organ that is removable. Surgery may be the best option for breast cancer, head and neck cancers, and early cancers of the cervix and lung, many skin cancers, soft tissue cancers and gastrointestinal cancers.
Radiotherapy
This is the second most common form of treatment. Radioactive x-rays or gamma rays can penetrate the cell wall and damage the nucleus of the cancer cells and prevents further multiplication of the cells. About half of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy either as the first line of treatment or in combination with other treatment. Some cancers are radiosensitive and can be cured completely by radiotherapy. Radiation can be given before surgery to reduce the size of the tumour, or after surgical removal of a tumour to destroy a small number of cancer cells that could not be surgically removed. There is, however, a limit to the amount of radiation that can be administered since radiation can also produce “radiation sickness”, where some healthy cells are also destroyed along with cancer cells. This is being curtailed by more efficient techniques Brachytherapy or interstitial radiation therapy, which help concentrate radiation on the tumour itself, without affecting the surrounding tissue.
 |
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a process where cancer is treated by using chemicals (drugs). These chemicals circulate in the body and are not confined to a single area. The advantages with chemotherapy are that they:
Are capable of treating cancer that is systemic and not localised.
Are useful in treating leukaemia and lymphoma that are not confined to one part of the body.
Can be used to relieve the symptoms that may be caused by cancer.
Slow down the spread of cancer
The problem with chemotherapy is that it affects the normal, fast growing body cells such as those in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, reproductive system and hair follicles. This may result in Nausea and vomiting, hair loss, Extreme Fatigue, Vulnerability to infection, Poor clotting of blood, Sores in the mouth and throat, Problems with bowel movement resulting in diarrhoea or constipation. Some other organs may also be affected depending on the drugs and the dosage. However there are some cancers that can be cured by chemotherapy that were previously considered fatal. Since, cancer treatment is usually multimodal, chemotherapy is used in combination with other treatment options.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy works by getting the body’s defence system to recognise cancer cells as alien and fight them as the immune system will fight any infection. This type of treatment is still at a very early experimental stage.
