Cancer Treatments – Surgery And Radiation
The traditional treatment modalities include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Currently studying the usefulness of immunotherapy and biological response modulation.
The main strategy for curative treatment of cancer is excision of all malignant cells by surgical intervention. In the past, this involved the excision of all affected tissue and as many potentially affected tissue, including the surrounding tissues and lymph nodes. For some tumors, particularly breast cancer, is not accurate as ablative surgery (mastectomy) in most cases.
Improvements in surgical techniques, knowledge in physiology, anesthesia and the availability of powerful antibiotics and blood products, have resulted in more limited surgery, with fewer sequels and more speedy recovery.
However, many cancers are not widespread in the time of diagnosis to curative surgery possible. If the local extent of tumor that affects surrounding tissues can not be resected, or if there are distant metastases, surgery is not curative treatment.
However, it may be beneficial for symptom relief in certain situations such as obstruction, or may have in order to reduce the tumor mass to allow better response to chemotherapy or radiation therapy treatment thereafter.
Ionizing radiation can be electromagnetic or particulate matter and produce tissue destruction. Electromagnetic radiation includes gamma rays, a form of radioactive emission, and X-rays, which occur when an electron beam strikes a heavy metal. The particle radiation include electron beams, protons, neutrons, alpha particles (helium nuclei) and pions.
The sensitivity of tumors to radiation is highly variable. Sensitive tumors are those whose sensitivity is higher than the adjacent normal tissue. When such tumors are well-accessible surface tumors or tumors in organs like the uterus which can introduce a source of radiation, can be cured by radiotherapy. The property of radiation to comply to some extent the normal tissue allows treatment of tumors in locations where surgery is not possible by the proximity of vital tissues or because the tumor has begun to infiltrate adjacent structures that can not be sacrificed. Radiation therapy is commonly used as palliative treatment, especially in metastases.
Radiation therapy may be useful as an adjunct to surgery. Preoperative radiation may sterilize the tumor cells rapidly and prevent its spread during surgery. It can also decrease the tumor mass to facilitate the surgery, or transforming an inoperable tumor operable in another. In other cases the radiotherapy is employed postoperatively.
Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs for the treatment of cancer. Since the drugs are distributed in the body through the circulatory system, chemotherapy is useful for those whose tumors spread makes them inaccessible to surgery or radiotherapy. There are many anticancer drugs, most of which act by interfering with DNA synthesis or function. Therefore dividing cells are more sensitive to chemotherapy.
The sensitivity of some tumors to chemotherapy is such that it is possible to cure a high percentage: this happens in uterine cancer, acute leukemias (especially in children), Hodgkin’s disease and diffuse large cell lymphomas; testicular carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, small cell carcinoma of the lung, and most of all childhood cancers. Often these processes have spread cancer at the time of diagnosis and no other treatment option. More advanced cancers are responsive to chemotherapy and may be held for long periods, so it is frequently used as palliative treatment.
The two main problems that limit the use of chemotherapy are toxicity and resistance. The techniques that prevent or control the toxicity and reduce the risk of resistance have been refined. It is important to the establishment of early treatment, use of optimal doses of the drug, the repetition of cycles with shorter intervals if possible, always allowing patient recovery from toxic effects.
Hormone Therapy: Many cancers from tissues that are sensitive to hormone action, such as breast, prostate, endometrium and thyroid, respond to hormonal treatment. Involves the administration of various hormones or anti-hormones or termination of the corresponding stimulating hormone.
Credit to: jvillalva on Monografias