There are three main ways to treat cancer– surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Many cancer patients need a combination of the three– sometimes all of them.
Surgery is good for cutting out tumors.
Radiation therapy is good for treating specific areas in the body that have tumors that cannot be cut out by surgery, or places where surgery has likely left cancer cells behind.
And chemotherapy is good for killing cancer cells that have traveled throughout the body through the bloodstream. It also can help shrink the primary tumor as well, and is also sometimes used with radiation for a powerful 1-2 punch against the tumor.
You may have heard of the term, “metastatic”, or “metastases”. What does metastatic cancer mean?
Metastatic means that the cancer has traveled from the place where it began– the primary tumor site– to another place in the body. Some cancers are more prone to traveling to some places than others. For instance, breast cancer, when it becomes metastatic, likes to travel to the bones, and sometimes the brain. The same is true for lung cancer. For colon cancer, these cancer cells have a propensity to travel to the liver too.
This is why chemotherapy is important. Chemo travels in the blood to these areas, and can kill any cancer cells that have already traveled to these regions.
Chemo does its thing on cancer cells that grow and divide quickly. But it also affects other normal body cells that grow and divide quickly too. That’s why the hair, the nails, and even the cells that line your mouth get affected.
Fortunately, though, newer chemotherapy agents are being developed that are getting better and better at targeting cancer cells, and leaving the normal cells alone.
A doctor with specialty training in Medical Oncology or Hematology Oncology is one who typically prescribes chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is an effective cancer treatment. It’s not without side effects. Learning about what to expect with treatment is an important step in preparing for the journey.