5 Common Ways to Treat Cancer

About 60% of humans in the world develop cancer in their life. Some of the cancer cells can grow and metastasize until upset normal bodily functions. It becomes one of the most frequent causes of human death.

Different types of cancer might induce varies of death rate. Usually, lung and pancreatic cancer are the worst! These two kinds of cancer will cause the death within a year. However, not all cancers are untreatable.

There are 5 common ways to treat cancer. Often, the objective of treatment is to cure the cancer. In other cases, the goal is to control the cancer disease or to reduce the symptoms. Because treatment for cancer can also damage healthy cells and tissues, it often causes side effects.

5 Common Ways to Treat Cancer

1) Surgery

Surgery is one of the cancer treatment methods that remove cancer by operation. This is the most common way to treat cancer. It is very rare that the cancer will spread the disease during the surgery. The cancer does not cause disease to be spread by exposing to the air.

Side effects:
a) Terrible pain
b) Tired and weak

2) Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is a treatment that uses a radiation ray to kill cancer cells in a infected area. It can be done externally by a machine that aims the radiation at the targeted area. I can also be done internally by using needles, seeds, wires, and so on. The advantage of this treatment method is painless. Some people afraid that the external radiotherapy will cause the body become radioactive. In fact, there is no such thing happen. However, a patient treated with internal radiation may need to stay in the hospital and quarantine from others until the permanent implant goes down to a safe level.

Side effects:
a) Feel very tired in the later weeks of treatment
b) Radiotherapy kills most of the white blood cells that protecting the body against infection.
c) Hair loss in treated area
d) Skin become red, dry, tender, and itchy

3) Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a method that uses the drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. However, the healthy cells can also be harmed. The doctor may use one drug or a combination of drugs to fully control the cancer cells from spreading. The body will start to produce the normal cell after the chemotherapy is over.

Side effects:
a) Hair loss
b) Temporary fatigue
c) Poor appetite, nausea and vomiting

4) Hormone therapy
Hormone therapy is a method that treats certain cancers with forbidding certain hormone from growth. This may include the use of drugs to stop the production of some hormones. Some hormone therapies even have to remove the hormone producing organ to stop the body from secreting the hormone anymore according to cancer research. For example, sometimes, we have to remove the ovary to treat the breast cancer. In some of the cases, the side effects of hormone therapy may be temporary or permanent.

Side effect:
a) Tired
b) Have fluid retention
c) Weight gain
d) Bone loss in premenopausal women

5) Biological therapy

Biological therapy is a method that uses our body immune system to fight the disease or to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment, directly or indirectly. This is the most suggested way to treat the cancer.

Side effects:
a) Cause flu-like symptoms
b) Bleed or bruise easily

The treatment of cancer may be only a method or a combination of methods. The best option is depending to the type and location of the cancer diseases. If the disease has spread to other parts of body, the combination methods might be used. Other factors are depending to the patients' age, general health and so on. Patients may worry whether the side effects of treatment will become worse than the disease or not. Thus, patients and doctors will discuss the treatment options regarding the benefits of the treatment method and the risks of side effects.