Several cancer treatment strategies include chemotherapy drugs--toxic medications that interfere with cancer cell growth and promote cancer remission. However, chemotherapy drugs also lead to a number of negative side effects, such as low blood count, which can make chemotherapy an unattractive treatment option in some cases. Patients wishing to avoid chemotherapy treatment may instead receive a number of other therapies to treat their disease.
Surgery
A number of cancers can be effectively treated with surgery to remove the tumor. Earlier-stage cancers often grow within localized regions of tissue without migrating into other tissues, so surgical excision of the tumor can often remove all or almost all cancer growth. During surgery, doctors typically also remove a small margin of healthy tissue around the cancer growth, and test this tissue to assess the extent of cancer spread and the need for additional treatment. The Mayo Clinic indicates that surgery is a common treatment to remove cancer growth in the colon and breast, as well as cancer in other tissues.
Radiation Treatment
Another alternative to chemotherapy is radiation treatment, or radiotherapy. This treatment aims a high dose of radiation into regions of cancer growth. Upon exposure to radiation, the cancer cells experience severe DNA damage, rendering the cell unable to proliferate and incapable of making the proteins it requires to survive. Through several radiation treatments, patients experience waves of cancer cell death, hopefully leading to cancer remission. The National Cancer Institute explains that radiation treatment for cancer can include external radiation--in which a beam of radiation goes through the skin or into the tumor--or internal radiation, in which radioactive particles are deposited in the tumor, irradiating the cancer from the inside. Doctors may perform radiation therapy alone, or as a complement to other cancer treatments.
Targeted Therapies
Some patients may receive targeted therapies to help fight cancer growth. Targeted therapy is drug therapy designed to identify and kill cancer cells. Unlike chemotherapy, which also harms healthy tissues, targeted therapies specifically damage cancer cells, avoiding damage to other tissues. The specific targeted therapy used depends on the type of cancer present, as well as the genetic characteristics of the tumor. For example, breast cancer patients with genetic mutations to the gene HER2 may receive the targeted therapy Herceptin, which is designed to kill breast cancer cells that overproduce the mutant HER2 protein. Patients looking to receive targeted therapies must undergo medical testing to determine whether specific therapies may prove effective for their tumor. Targeted therapies may be used alone, or along with other cancer therapies to promote cancer remission.
