Cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or biological therapy. Your cancer specialist may use one method or a combination of treatments. The choice depends on the type and location of the cancer, whether the disease has spread, age, overall health, and other factors.
Medical Oncology
Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, both good and bad. Chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the major properties of cancer cells. This means that it can also harm cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances such as cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles. This property results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy: anemia (low red blood cell count), stomach upset and hair loss. Many of these drugs are given in different combinations to help improve the benefit while reducing the degree of toxicity, as different drugs have different side effects. (Toxicity refers to side effects that are related to the dose of a drug.) Newer chemotherapy agents are more specific to the cells they are attempting to destroy, thus limiting bad effects to normal cells.
Due to tremendous advances in chemotherapy in recent years, many cancers have become curable, especially when combined with surgery and radiation therapy. Often, the side effects of chemotherapy can be managed allowing many people to continue to work or manage a full schedule through their cancer treatment course. Supportive care, with drugs to help control chemotherapy related side effects of anemia and nausea have improved the degree of toxicity.
Biological therapy, sometimes called immunotherapy or biotherapy is a relatively new addition to the family of cancer treatment. Biological therapies use the body's immune system, either directly or indirectly, to fight cancer or to lessen the side effects that may be caused by some cancer treatments. The immune system is a network of cells and organs that function as the body's main defenses against infection and disease, including cancer. For example, the immune system may recognize the difference between healthy cells and cancer cells in the body and works to eliminate cancerous cells. However, the immune system does not always recognize cancer cells as “foreign.” Also, cancer may develop when the immune system breaks down or does not function adequately. Biological therapies are designed to repair, stimulate, or enhance the immune system's responses.
Hormone therapy, also called hormonal therapy, is used primarily for prostate and breast cancer. This type of treatment is used to keep cancer cells from getting the hormones they need to grow. Hormones are chemicals produced by glands in your body, and are circulated in the bloodstream. Estrogen and progesterone are hormones that affect the way some cancers grow. If tests show that your cancer cells have estrogen, progesterone, and/or testosterone receptors (molecules found in some cancer cells to which estrogen and progesterone will attach), hormone therapy is used to block the way these hormones help the cancer grow. This treatment may include the use of drugs that change the way hormones work, or surgery to remove the ovaries that make female hormones, or the testicles, which produce male hormones.
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Radiation Oncology
Radiation oncology (also called radiation therapy) is the medical specialty whose purpose is the control or cure of certain disease processes, primarily cancer, using high-energy radiation.
Cells are the building blocks of the human body. Each body tissue and body organ is made up of billions of cells working together so each body system can function in a normal, useful way. Cancer begins because changes occur in cells of the body that cause them to act and reproduce in an abnormal way. Cancer cells are not normal cells therefore, they do not function as they should. Radiation therapy works by damaging the DNA of cells. Although some cancer cells reproduce more often than normal cells, they have a diminished ability to repair themselves. The DNA damage is inherited through cell division and causes them to die or reproduce more slowly.
There are different cancers, and each behaves differently. Radiation attempts to destroy the abnormal cancer sells in a particular part of the body. It can be used alone or in combination with surgery/ chemotherapy. There have been significant advances in the field of radiation therapy for cancer patients with the advances in computer technology. One key improvement has been the integration of sophisticated imaging methods into treatment delivery and treatment planning systems. These new techniques allow unprecedented accuracy and verification of the target tissue thereby sparing normal tissues and reducing side effects associated with treatment. Now, radiation therapy only affects the area of the body that is being treated.
The radiation therapy team ensures that each patient receives the full benefit of the radiation therapy treatment, while maintaining the highest quality of life possible.
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Surgical Intervention
The Department of Surgical Services at Longmont United Hospital provides care and treatment for patients with a diagnosis of cancer. A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, registered nurses and surgical technologists all work together to help diagnose and treat patients who have cancer. We provide a variety of services from biopsies to major cancer surgeries like bowel resections, mastectomies and radical prostatectomies. We are equipped to offer the most up to date procedures including minimally invasive, laparoscopic and image-guided surgery.
It is our goal in surgery to provide each cancer patient with the highest quality of care for their disease, and at the same time, create an environment where each patient feels safe, respected and hopeful. The Planetree model of care is our guideline as we assist our surgery patients in this part of their journey toward healing.
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What if you are diagnosed with an unusual cancer?
Our physicians have access to all the cancer research centers across the country for referral services and the most current information on treatment options.
A cancer physician will also confidentially present to the cancer committee a patient’s diagnosis. At that time the Cancer Committee will discuss local resources, suggested plan of actions, and appropriate referrals. With the information obtained from this meeting, the physician will contact the referred physician to discuss the diagnosis to determine if that physician would be the appropriate referral for a patient.
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