Cancer Treatment

Complete surgical excision is possible in very few cases since the cancerous tissues usually metastasizes to other places in the patient's body before the surgery. Masectomy is the surgical treatment used for treating breast cancer while for prostate cancer, prostatectomy is used. The aim of carrying out the surgery is to remove the tumour or if required the entire affected organ, which is however unfortunately limited to very few cases of small cancer.Radiation therapy is also known as radiotherapy. It uses ionizing radiation for killing cancerous cells and shrinking the tumors. It damages the genetic material of the cells thereby preventing them from replicating further. The drawback of this methodology of remedial is that it often damages the normal cells in addition to the harmful ones. Though, in most cases the normal ones recover and re-function properly, it leads to permanent damage in some. It is used in treating brain cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and also cancer of the skin, prostate, uterus, stomach, or pancreas. Even lymphoma and leukemia can be treated by radiation.Cancer can also be treated by Chemotherapy which involves use of drugs which destroy rapidly dividing cells. It interferes in various ways with division of cells and has the potential of harming healthy tissues. However after Chemotherapy these healthy cells repair themselves. High dose Chemotherapy is used for treatment of certain lymphomas and leukaemias.