Cancer Treatment

Modern and evidence based cancer treatment requires the collaboration of many different medical specialties. Depending on the type of cancer and the stage, all or some of the following treatment options may be required: surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, biological therapy, which are supplemented in each case by providing supportive care to the patient.
The Oncologist is the doctor who will inform the patient about the appropriate treatment options and is the one who will undertake to contact all the relevant specialties in order to offer the patient the best available treatment for his case.
Below you will find some basic information about the different types of treatment:

Below you will find some basic information regarding different kinds of treatment:

Surgery
Aims to either completely remove the tumor in the early stages of cancer or reduce the burden on the tumor to make other treatments more effective. It can also be used for relieving persistent symptoms.

Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy uses cytotoxic radiation against rapidly dividing cancer cells. It is offered either in combination with surgery and chemotherapy or as an individual treatment. It can also be used to relieve pain in areas affected by cancer (such as bones).

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy involves the administration of drugs that kill the cancer cells. The main difference from the surgical and radiotherapy method is that the drugs circulate in the blood and are delivered to all parts of the body, fighting the cancer cells in all places, even those that are far away from the primary cancer . Chemotherapy may consist of a single drug or a combination of different drugs and may be given intravenously by injection or orally in the form of tablets. There are now ways to control or even prevent many of the side effects associated with chemotherapy, allowing many patients receiving this type of treatment to work, travel, and engage in all their daily activities.

Hormone therapy
Hormone therapy aims to prevent certain hormones to help cancer cells growing. Cells such as of prostate and breast cancer may have hormone receptors that bind to hormones that circulate in the body and enhance their proliferation. These cells are very sensitive to the suppression of this mechanism. Hormone therapy thus aims to either reduce the amount of hormones circulating in the body, or to prevent receptors from blocking the hormones that cause cell growth.

Biological Therapy, Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy

Biological therapy uses molecules that mimic substances that are normally present in the human body (such as antibodies).
Targeted therapies are drugs that are created to block specific genes, proteins, or other molecules that are involved in the growth and spread of cancer cells. This type of treatment is at the heart of extensive research on anticancer drugs.

These types of drugs work against the target cancer cell while they are less harmful to normal cells that do not have that target.

Immunotherapy stimulates the patient’s immune system to target and attack cancer cells. Just as bacteria and viruses are attacked and destroyed by the immune system because they are “foreign” to the body, so are cancer cells initially recognized as dangerous by the body’s immune system and are destroyed. Gradually though cancer cells develop the ability to suppress the defense of the immune system.
Immunotherapy drugs reuse an individual’s immune system to fight cancer cells. They can stimulate, strengthen or train a person’s immune system to act better and more effectively when it attacks cancer cells. This can be done in one of two ways:

In the first, the patient’s own immune system is trained to recognize cancer cells as targets for destruction. This is achieved by vaccinating the patient with a cancer vaccine or by administering immunostimulatory drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-1, anti-PDL-1 and anti-CTLA-4) that release the body’s defense cells of suppressive mechanisms used by cancer cells and lead them to the tumor microenvironment, where they kill cancer cells . There is also the way of administering therapeutic antibodies as drugs, so the patient’s immune system undertakes to destroy the cancer cells that have been labeled by the antibodies.

In cases of cancer where immunotherapy is indicated, these treatments are very effective and usually less toxic than chemotherapy.
We look forward to providing further information on cancer and its diagnosis and treatment.