Cancer Treatments

1. Cancer Treatments Jessica Davies and Connie Holm

2. Surgery • Surgery can be used to diagnose, treat, or even help prevent cancer in some cases. • Most people with cancer will have some type of surgery. • It often offers the greatest chance for cure, especially if the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.

3. Chemotherapy • Chemotherapy (chemo) is the use of strong medicines or drugs to treat cancer. • Chemo was first used to treat cancer in the 1950s. It has helped many people live full lives. The chemo drugs your doctor or nurse gives you have been tested many times. Research shows they work to help kill cancer cells. • There are more than 100 chemo drugs used today. Doctors choose certain types of drugs based on the kind of cancer you have and its stage. • Chemo may be used to:-Keep the cancer from spreading.-Slow the cancer’s growth.-Kill cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body.-Relieve symptoms such as pain or blockages caused by cancer.-Cure cancer.

4. Radiation Therapy • Radiation therapy uses high-energy particles or waves to destroy or damage cancer cells. • It is one of the most common treatments for cancer, either by itself or along with other forms of treatment.

5. Targeted Therapy • To become cancer cells, normal cells go through a process called carcinogenesis. Cancer cells may then grow into tumors or reproduce throughout a body system, like blood cancers do. • Targeted therapy is a newer type of cancer treatment that uses drugs or other substances to more precisely identify and attack cancer cells while doing little damage to normal cells • It disrupts this process. The drugs target certain parts of the cellular changes and signals that are needed for a cancer to develop and keep growing. • These drugs are often grouped by how they work, or what part of the cell they target

6. Immunotherapy • Immunotherapy is treatment that uses your body's own immune system to help fight cancer. • Immunotherapy is also sometimes called biologic therapy or biotherapy. It is treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways: • Stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter to attack cancer cells • Giving your immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins

7. Hyperthermia • The idea of using heat to treat cancer has been around for some time, but early attempts had mixed results • There are 2 main ways in which hyperthermia can be used: • Very high temperatures can be used to destroy a small area of cells, such as a tumor. This is often called local hyperthermia or thermal ablation. • The temperature of a part of the body (or even the whole body) can be raised to a higher than normal level. It isn’t hot enough to kill the cells directly, but this can allow other types of cancer treatments such as radiation therapy, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy to work better. This is known as regional hyperthermia or whole-body hyperthermia.

8. Blood Product Donation and Transfusions • Transfusions of blood and blood products temporarily replace parts of the blood when a person's body can't make its own or has lost them from bleeding • Some cancers (especially digestive system cancers) cause internal bleeding, which can lead to anemia. • Cancers that start in the bone marrow (such as leukemias) or cancers that spread there from other places may crowd out the normal blood-making cells, leading to low blood counts. • People who have had cancer for some time may develop what is known as anemia of chronic disease. This anemia results from certain long-term medical conditions that affect the production and lifespan of red blood cells. • Cancer can also lower blood counts in other ways by affecting organs such as the kidneys and spleen, which are involved in keeping enough cells in the blood.

9. Complementary and Alternative Medicine • The terms "complementary" and "alternative" are sometimes used to refer to non-traditional methods of diagnosing, preventing, or treating cancer or its symptom • Complementarytherapy is used along with standard or mainstream medical treatment. Examples might include meditation to reduce stress, peppermint or ginger tea for nausea, and guided imagery to help relieve stress and pain during medical procedures. • Examples: Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Labyrinth walking, Massage therapy,Meditation, Music therapy, Prayer and spirituality, Tai chi, Yoga

10. Typical Side Effects • Pain • Nausea and Vomiting • Fatigue • Anemia • Lymphedema • Infections – from surgery • Second Cancer - chemotherapy and radiation therapy may increase a person's risk of developing a different types of cancer later in life • Sexual Side Effects • Some treatments can effect fertility • Ostomy(or stoma), which is a surgical opening made in the skin as a way for waste products to leave the body. An ostomy can allow wastes to leave from the intestines (ileostomy or colostomy) or from the bladder (urostomy).