Common Cancer Treatments: Part 2

Chemotherapy involves the treatment of cancer with anticancer drugs. These drugs have the ability to destroy rapidly dividing cells, but they are not specific only for cancer cells. Rapidly dividing normal cells on the skin and hair can also be affected by these drugs. However, normal cells usually have the ability to repair themselves after the chemotherapy.

Virtually all of the anticancer drugs are toxic at the applied dosages and they destroy a patient's natural resistance to many diseases, including cancer. Because these drugs cannot distinguish between cancerous and normal cells, they disrupt or kill normal, healthy cells throughout the body, besides attacking the tumor. Chemotherapy has only a limited effectiveness against any tumor that is large or has spread; its successes are generally with small, very early tumors.

Targeted therapy, which first became available in the late 1990s, has had a significant impact in the treatment of some types of cancer, and is currently a very active research area. Targeted therapy usually involves the use of some molecules as homing devices which bind to some part of the cancer cell and eventually destroy it. Monoclonal antibodies are classic examples of targeted therapy.

Most individuals think that when it comes to cancer, the treatment is limited to the cancer. However, the majority of individuals with cancer also develop other symptoms like pain, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, weight loss, depression and anxiety. To improve the quality of life, most individuals need medications, herbal or nutritional therapy to help cope with these serious side effects. Some individuals may have agonizing pain and require narcotics like morphine.

Despite billions of dollars invested in research, cancer treatments with conventional medicine has not had a great deal of success. For this reason, many individuals have been turning to alternative medicine.