Key Words
- alternative therapies In recent years, interest in alternative cancer treatment methods has grown tremendously. These approaches differ from the conventional medical treatments and are currently under study. They are also called unconventional, nontraditional, complementary, unproven, holistic, or questionable methods. Views about alternative cancer therapies vary greatly: believers have great faith in them, claiming they can do miracles while non-believers simply dismiss them as medical quackery.
- antibody A protein that binds to substances that might harm the body, rendering them ineffective.
- biomodulation Treatments that manipulate the body’s immune system, enhancing its response to cancerous cells; immunotherapies.
- chemotherapy Chemotherapy (also called chemo) is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
- clinical trials Research involving human subjects that determines the safety and effectiveness of drugs.
- efficacy The ability of a drug or treatment to produce a result; effectiveness.
- hormone therapy Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that slows or stops the growth of cancer that uses hormones to grow. Hormone therapy is also called hormonal therapy, hormone treatment, or endocrine therapy.
- immunotherapy Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy. Biological therapy is a type of treatment that uses substances made from living organisms to treat cancer.
- lumpectomy Surgical removal of a breast tumor, including a layer of surrounding tissue.
- mastectomy The surgical removal of a breast to treat breast cancer.
- placebo A sham treatment that is used to determine the effectiveness of experimental treatments.
- radiation therapy Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. At low doses, radiation is used in x-rays to see inside your body, as with x-rays of your teeth or broken bones.
- stem cell therapies Stem cell transplants are procedures that restore blood-forming stem cells in people who have had theirs destroyed by the very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy that are used to treat certain cancers.
- surgery Surgery, when used to treat cancer, is a procedure in which a surgeon removes cancer from your body. Surgeons are medical doctors with special training in surgery.
- targeted therapy Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment that targets the changes in cancer cells that help them grow, divide, and spread. As researchers learn more about the cell changes that drive cancer, they are better able to design promising therapies that target these changes or block their effects.
Clinical Trials
- America Cancer Association. Clinical trials. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/clinicaltrials/clinical-trials-landing
Clinical trials are studies in which people volunteer to take part in tests of new drugs or procedures. Doctors use clinical trials to develop new treatments for serious diseases such as cancer. In this section you can learn about clinical trials in general, find tools to help you decide if a clinical trial may be right for you, and search for specific studies you may be eligible to take part in.
Ethics
- Simon, C., Kodish. E., & Unguru. Y. Bioethics, Vol. 2, 2014.
An oncologist's ethical responsibilities typically begin with a positive diagnosis of cancer, an event that triggers shock and anxiety in patients and their families. Cancer is associated by many people with disfigurement, dying, and death. Therefore the first ethical duty of an oncologist and his or her team is to convey the diagnosis in a way that balances the reality of the disease and its implications with the overall need to maintain optimism and hope (Mack and Grier 2004).
The Human Condition
Beaty, S. (Producer). (2001). Living with cancer [Television series episode 22]. In The human condition. Intelecom Telecommunications.
Summary: Living With Cancer (2001) identifies the technological and scientific advances that have enabled ever-greater numbers of cancer patients to "beat" the disease. Covers the principal forms of cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy and radiation - and discusses how those treatments are paired with newer treatments such as, gene therapy, and angiogenesis-inhibiting drugs. Hearing from cancer victims themselves, assesses the psychological, social, and spiritual impact of cancer on the individual; the importance of family and support groups in helping cancer patients focus positively on recovery; and the impact that a battle with cancer often has on the individual's values and life priorities.
Diagnosis
- National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Early detection. Retrieved from http://progressreport.cancer.gov/detection
The use of screening tests to detect cancers early provides better opportunities for patients to obtain more effective treatment with fewer side effects. Patients whose cancers are found early and treated in a timely manner are more likely to survive these cancers than are those whose cancers are not found until symptoms appear. - Cancer Council Australia. (2015, November 9). Early detection. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/early-detection/Some cancers can be detected at an early stage when treatment is likely to be more effective. Tests have been developed that can detect these cancers well before any symptoms are present.
- Pollack, A. (2013, June 13). After patent ruling, availability of tests could broaden. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/business/after-dna-patent-ruling-availability-of-genetic-tests-could-broaden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0Almost immediately after the Supreme Court ruled that human genes could not be patented, several laboratories announced they, too, would begin offering genetic testing for breast cancer risk, making it likely that that test and others could become more affordable and more widely available.
- National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Cancer diagnosis. Retrieved from http://training.seer.cancer.gov/disease/diagnosis/The diagnosis of cancer entails an attempt to accurately identify the anatomical site of origin of the malignancy and the type of cells involved. Cancer can arise in any organ or tissue in the body except fingernails, hair, and teeth.
- Cancer. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://school.eb.com.au.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/levels/high/article/106118#224734.tocGreater insight into the causes and mechanisms of cancer has led to better ways to diagnose and treat the many forms of this disease. First of all, advances in detection have improved the ability to discover cancers earlier and to diagnose them more accurately than was the case only a few years ago.
Treatment
- Nucleas Medical Media. (2012). Chemotherapy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKIRWY-LMYcThis video about chemotherapy, created by Nucleus Medical Media, depicts normal cell division, apoptosis, tumor cell formation, tumor development, and angiogenesis of a tumor. It describes the cause of tumor cell formation at the genetic level with DNA, and metastasis through blood and lymph vessels. This animation covers the various effects of chemotherapy: cancer cell death, tumor death, destruction of normal cells and tissue. It also covers the side effects associated with chemotherapy treatments. Also described are related treatments, such as, radiation, pills, capsules, liquids, intravenous injections, surgical procedures, catheterization, CSF injection, wafter placement, and schedule of treatments.
- Cancer Council Australia. (n.d.). After diagnosis. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/after-a-diagnosis/Following a diagnosis of cancer, you and your family are likely to have many questions. Our fact sheets have been designed to help answer some of the more common questions:
- National Cancer Institute. (n.d.) Cancer treatment. Retrieved from http://training.seer.cancer.gov/treatment/Cancer treatment involves medical procedures to destroy, modify, control, or remove primary, regional, or metastatic cancer tissue. The goals of cancer treatment include eradicating known tumors entirely, preventing the recurrence or spread of the primary cancer, and relieving symptoms if all reasonable curative approaches have been exhausted.
- American Cancer Society. (2014, June 25). How genes can help in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/geneticsandcancer/genesandcancer/genes-and-cancer-genes-in-cancer-diagnosis-and-treatmentDrugs have been developed that target some of the gene changes in certain cancers. Actually these drugs often target the protein made by the abnormal gene (and not the gene itself).