“When cancer happens, you don’t put life on hold”
Cancer is a debilitating disease but we must not lose our hope as there are millions of cancer survivors all over the world who have battled cancer. The survivors had in common were determination, strength, patience, and hope. While coping with the disease there is no right or wrong. Our medical science is technologically advanced and each day some new development is made in the medical field.
The most common and effective cancer treatment options are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, and other than that few more are hormonal therapy, laser therapy, immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy, cryotherapy to name a few.
# 1. Surgery
Surgery may be done to diagnose cancer to find out how far it has spread and the main objective of performing surgery is to remove the cancer cells or as much of it as possible. Surgery works best for tumors that are contained in a specific area. The development of surgical techniques brings better outcomes to cancer patients.
# 2. Chemotherapy
In this form of therapy, drugs are used to kill the cancer cells. Chemotherapy prevents the cells from growing, dividing, and multiplying. It is very effective for cancer cells.
# 3. Radiation therapy
This therapy involves the use of high-powered energy beams to kill the cancer cells or slow down their growth by damaging their DNA. This therapy shrinks the tumors. After the DNA of cancer cells is damaged they stop dividing or die.
# 4. Hormone therapy or Endocrine therapy
Hormone therapy slows down or stops the growth of the cancer cells that use hormones to grow. Hormone therapy is usually used to treat breast cancer or prostate cancer and may be used along with other cancer treatments.
# 5. Laser therapy
In this therapy focused light is used and is tuned to specific wavelengths to confiscate or destroy cancer and abnormal cells. Tumor cells absorb the light emitted from the laser. It can treat very early cancers and in the case of advanced cancer, it can shrink or destroy the tumors that cause blockage in the body.
# 6. Immunotherapy
The objective of immunotherapy is to enhance the functioning of the immune system so that it can work better at destroying cancer cells.
# 7. Photodynamic therapy
The therapy uses light along with special drugs (photosensitizing agents) to kill the cancer cells. After getting activated by certain kinds of light, the drugs start working .
# 8. Cryotherapy
The goal of cryotherapy is to freeze and kill cancer cells by using extreme cold. All the cells contain water including the cancer cells and in cryotherapy, the water turns to ice crystals.
Note :
Cancer treatment shrinks or stops the progression of cancer cells or may even cure cancer. The treatment may vary from person to person depending on their condition. Though the main objective of cancer treatment is to cure it and increase longevity.
A primary treatment aims to completely get rid of the cancer cells from the body through surgery and the goal of adjuvant treatment is to kill the cancer cells in case if any remains and stop the chances of recurrence and the treatment includes radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy. Another treatment type i.e. palliative treatment aids in dealing with the side-effects of treatment or the signs and symptoms caused due to cancer.
We must not lose hope and deal with cancer confidently.
