Cancer treatment facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Cancer treatment
A patient prepared for radiation therapy
Specialty	Oncology
ICD-10-PCS	110000053

Cancer treatments are ways to help people who have cancer. There are many different types of cancer, and each one might need a special kind of treatment. Some common treatments include surgery, chemotherapy (using medicines), radiation therapy (using strong energy), and hormonal therapy. Other treatments are targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and stem-cell therapy. Often, people get a mix of these treatments. For example, someone might have chemotherapy before surgery.

The best treatment depends on where the cancer is, how much it has grown, and the person's overall health. Doctors can use special tests to learn more about the cancer and choose the best plan. Scientists are always working on new ways to treat cancer. In 2023, experts thought that about one in five people would get cancer at some point in their lives.

The main goal of cancer treatment is to get rid of the cancer completely or to help the person live much longer. If the cancer is very serious and can't be cured, doctors focus on palliative care. This means helping the person feel comfortable and have the best possible quality of life. Many types of cancer can be treated successfully, especially if they are found early.

Types of Treatments

Doctors have learned a lot about cancer over time, and treatments have changed a lot. People in ancient Egypt used surgery to remove tumors. Hormone therapy and radiation therapy started in the late 1800s. Chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and newer targeted therapies came about in the 1900s. As we learn more about cancer, treatments will keep getting better, more precise, and safer, helping people live longer and feel better.

Surgery

Surgery is often used to remove malignant tumors, which are growths that can spread. If a tumor is completely removed, the cancer can be cured. However, if the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body (this is called metastasizing), it's usually not possible to remove all of it with surgery alone.

Some examples of cancer surgeries include mastectomy (removing a breast) or lumpectomy (removing only the tumor from a breast) for breast cancer. For prostate cancer, it's called prostatectomy, and for lung cancer, it's lung cancer surgery. The goal of surgery can be to remove just the tumor, or sometimes a whole organ or part of it. Even a tiny cancer cell, too small to see, can grow into a new tumor later. To prevent this, doctors check the removed tissue to make sure there's a clear edge of healthy tissue around the tumor. This helps make sure no cancer cells are left behind.

Surgery is also important for "staging" the cancer. This means finding out how much the cancer has grown and if it has spread to nearby lymph nodes. Knowing the stage helps doctors predict how the cancer might behave and if other treatments are needed. Sometimes, surgery is done just to help with symptoms, like when a tumor is pressing on the spinal cord or blocking the bowel. This is called palliative treatment.

Sometimes, surgery happens before other treatments, and sometimes after. When treatment is given before surgery, it's called "neoadjuvant" treatment. For example, in breast cancer, getting chemotherapy before surgery can make the tumor easier to remove.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy uses strong energy, like X-rays, to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. This energy damages the cancer cells' DNA, which is like their instruction manual, causing them to die. Radiation can damage DNA directly or create tiny charged particles that harm the DNA.

Radiation therapy can be given from outside the body (called external beam radiotherapy) or from inside the body using small radioactive sources placed near the tumor (called brachytherapy). The effects of radiation are usually only in the area being treated. Radiation can harm both cancer cells and healthy cells. But most healthy cells can fix themselves and recover from the radiation. The goal is to damage as many cancer cells as possible while protecting healthy tissue nearby. That's why radiation is often given in small doses over many days, allowing healthy cells time to heal.

Radiation therapy can treat almost all types of solid tumors. It can also be used for blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. The amount of radiation used depends on the type of cancer and if there are important organs nearby that could be damaged. Like all treatments, radiation therapy can have side effects. For example, if salivary glands are in the treatment area, it can lead to dry mouth, which might be a lasting problem.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses special medicines, often called "anticancer drugs," to destroy cancer cells. These medicines can be given in different ways, like shots into muscles or veins, or sometimes as pills. When people talk about chemotherapy, they usually mean drugs that attack cells that divide quickly. This is different from "targeted therapy," which we'll talk about next.

Chemotherapy drugs work by stopping cancer cells from dividing and growing. They can mess with how cells copy their DNA or separate new chromosomes. Most chemotherapy drugs affect all fast-dividing cells, not just cancer cells. This means they can also harm healthy tissues that grow quickly, like the lining of your intestines or hair roots. But these healthy cells usually repair themselves after treatment.

Because some drugs work better together, doctors often give two or more chemotherapy drugs at the same time. This is called "combination chemotherapy."

Since chemotherapy affects the whole body, it can have many side effects. Patients often lose their hair because the drugs attack hair root cells. This strong treatment can also cause tiredness, loss of appetite, and vomiting, though this varies for each person.

For some blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma, very high doses of chemotherapy are used. This can damage the bone marrow, which makes blood cells. To help the body recover, doctors might collect a person's bone marrow or blood stem cells before treatment. After the high-dose treatment, these cells are put back into the body to help it make new blood cells. This is called an "autologous stem cell transplant."

Targeted Therapies

Targeted therapies are newer treatments that became available in the late 1990s. They are a big focus of research today. These treatments use medicines that specifically attack certain proteins or pathways that are important for cancer cells to grow and survive. Unlike traditional chemotherapy, which affects many fast-dividing cells, targeted therapies are more precise.

One type of targeted therapy uses "small molecule drugs." These drugs block specific enzymes or proteins inside cancer cells that are faulty or overactive. Examples include imatinib and gefitinib.

Another type is "monoclonal antibody therapy." This uses special antibodies that are made in a lab. These antibodies are designed to stick to specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells. Once they attach, they can help destroy the cancer cell or stop it from growing. Examples include trastuzumab for breast cancer and rituximab for certain blood cancers.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment that uses a special light-sensitive medicine and light (often from lasers). When the medicine is in the body and light shines on it, it creates chemicals that kill cancer cells. PDT can treat skin cancers or lung cancer. It can also be used to remove tiny bits of cancer left after surgery.

Research shows that targeted therapies can significantly help people with advanced cancer by slowing down the cancer's growth. While these treatments are promising, scientists are still studying their long-term effects on overall survival and quality of life.

Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps your body's own immune system fight cancer. Your immune system is like your body's army, protecting you from germs and diseases. Immunotherapy tries to make this army stronger or help it recognize cancer cells as enemies.

Some ways to boost the immune system against tumors include using certain bacteria (like BCG for bladder cancer) or special proteins called cytokines. Scientists are also working on "cancer vaccines" to teach the immune system to attack specific cancer cells.

In some cases, a stem cell transplant from another person (a donor) can be a form of immunotherapy. The donor's immune cells can sometimes attack the cancer cells in the patient's body. This is called the "graft-versus-tumor effect."

Another type of immunotherapy is called "immune checkpoint therapy." Your immune system has "checkpoints" that act like brakes to stop it from overreacting. Cancer cells can sometimes use these brakes to hide from the immune system. Immune checkpoint therapy blocks these brakes, allowing your immune system to attack the cancer. In 2018, two scientists, Dr. James Allison and Dr. Tasuku Honjo, won the Nobel Prize for their important work on this type of therapy.

Hormonal Therapy

The growth of some cancers depends on hormones. Hormonal therapy works by either giving certain hormones or, more often, by blocking them. For example, some breast cancers and prostate cancers grow because of hormones like estrogen or testosterone. By blocking these hormones, doctors can slow or stop the cancer's growth.

Side effects from hormonal therapy can vary, but they might include hot flashes, nausea, and tiredness.

Angiogenesis Inhibitors

Angiogenesis inhibitors are medicines that stop tumors from growing new blood vessels. Tumors need a lot of blood vessels to get nutrients and oxygen so they can grow and spread. By blocking the growth of these vessels, these medicines can starve the tumor and stop it from getting bigger or spreading to other parts of the body. Some approved angiogenesis inhibitors include bevacizumab, axitinib, and cabozantinib.

Exercise Prescription

Exercise is becoming an important part of cancer treatment. Studies show that regular exercise can help reduce the chance of cancer coming back, improve how long people live, and lessen the side effects of other cancer treatments. While we're still learning exactly how exercise helps, it has many benefits for your heart, mental health, and overall well-being, with very few risks. Exercise physiologists and specialists can help doctors create safe exercise plans for cancer patients.

Walking is usually an excellent exercise option as an adjunct cancer treatment.

Symptom Control and Palliative Care

Controlling symptoms is a very important part of cancer care, even if it's not directly fighting the cancer. It helps people feel better and can allow them to handle other treatments. Doctors can help reduce pain, nausea from chemotherapy, diarrhea, bleeding, and other common problems. Palliative care is a special type of care that focuses on making patients comfortable and improving their quality of life.

Mental Struggles/Pain

Living with cancer can be very tough mentally. It's common for patients to feel stressed, overwhelmed, uncertain, or even depressed. Chemotherapy, for example, is a very strong treatment that can make people feel physically exhausted, which also affects their minds. Because of this, hospitals often offer different types of therapy and support for mental well-being. These can include yoga, meditation, talking therapy, and spiritual support. All of these aim to help calm the mind, relax, and give hope to patients who might feel drained.

Insomnia

Many people who have had cancer treatments experience insomnia, which means having trouble sleeping. About 60% of cancer survivors deal with insomnia. If not treated, it can affect both physical and mental health long-term. Insomnia means you're not happy with how long or how well you sleep, and you have trouble falling or staying asleep. This can really lower your quality of life. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to help reduce insomnia and depression for cancer survivors.

Muscle Strength

Losing muscle strength is a common side effect of many cancer treatments. Because of this, exercise is very important, especially in the first year after treatment. Activities like yoga, water exercise, and pilates can improve how breast cancer survivors feel emotionally and their overall quality of life.

Fatigue

Fatigue is a feeling of extreme physical and mental tiredness that doesn't go away, even with rest. It's very common for cancer patients to feel tired before, during, and after treatment. This tiredness can be caused by the cancer itself, but often it's a side effect of treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and hormone therapy. Scientists are still trying to understand exactly why cancer-related fatigue happens, but it might be linked to inflammation or changes in stress hormones. Also, things like genetics, sleep problems, existing mood disorders, or not being very active can make fatigue worse.

To treat cancer-related fatigue, doctors might suggest medicines, but these often only help a little. So, non-medicine approaches are usually preferred. Things like aerobic exercise (like walking or swimming) and talking therapies (like cognitive behavioral therapy or mindfulness) show promise in helping cancer patients feel less tired.

Hospice Care

Hospice care provides special palliative care for people with very advanced illnesses that are expected to be terminal (meaning they will lead to death). This care can happen at home or in a special hospice center. Sometimes, a person with cancer might choose not to have more treatments because of their unpleasant side effects, and instead opt for hospice care. Hospice care focuses on supporting the person's medical, emotional, social, practical, psychological, and spiritual needs.

"Advance care planning" (ACP) helps people decide and write down their wishes for future medical care as they get closer to the end of life. ACP helps adults at any stage of health think about what they want and discuss it with their family or caregivers.

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