Disease Information
What is Cancer?
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spreading of abnormal cells. Cancer is a term for more than 100 disorders in which cells grow and multiply uncontrollably.
How is Cancer Treated?
Surgery
Surgery is a major component of cancer therapy and has many goals. Surgical procedures provide the means to establish a diagnosis, determine the stage of disease, and to treat the disease.
Radiation
Radiation therapy can be used as a cancer treatment for some malignancies. Most frequently, radiation is used in combination with surgery and/or chemotherapy. Radiation is the use of high-energy radiation targeted at tumor cells.
Chemotherapy
This refers to any drug therapy, but is a term most recognized for drugs that treat cancer. Therefore, chemotherapeutic drugs are drugs used to cure, control, or relieve symptoms associated with cancer. Chemotherapy is a treatment strategy based on the effectiveness of cytotoxic drugs that act on cancer cells. Because of how they affect the cells during the phases of the cell cycle, these drugs are usually given in combination.
Hormonal Therapy
A variety of hormones are useful in treating cancer. Some of these include anti-estrogens and anti-androgens.