Why am I given chemotherapy before surgery?

To shrink the tumor so the surgery is less extensive, or to see how the tumor responds to treatment. It is called neoadjuvant and is common in breast, rectum and others.

Does immunotherapy work for any cancer?

Not in all of them. It works in tumors with certain molecular features, and the biopsy analysis says which. That is why it is not indicated without that study.

How long does a full treatment last?

It depends on the combination. Surgery is one day and weeks of recovery, and chemotherapy and radiotherapy are given in cycles over weeks or months, and hormonal therapy can last years.

The six cancer treatments, on one page

In short

Each treatment does something different: remove, destroy from a distance, block, or teach the body to attack.
In localized solid tumors, surgery is usually the main step and sometimes the only one.
The combination is not decided by one doctor alone: a team decides it with the tumor type, its stage and your health in front of them.

Surgery

Removing the tumor with a of healthy tissue around it and, when needed, the nearby lymph nodes. In localized solid tumors it is usually the main step and sometimes the only one: breast, thyroid, colon, skin and soft tissue, early-stage lung. It also serves to diagnose, because a biopsy is a small surgery, and to relieve symptoms. Today many are performed through small incisions and preserving the organ's function.

Chemotherapy

Drugs that attack fast-dividing cells, which is what cancer cells do. It may be given before surgery to shrink the tumor, after it to eliminate what cannot be seen, or as the main treatment in blood cancers and in those that have already spread. Its side effects are real and managed, and its role in many cancers remains central.

Radiotherapy

High-energy radiation aimed at the tumor to destroy its cells or shrink it. Used alone or after surgery, for example after keeping the breast, and to relieve pain when a tumor compresses a neighboring structure. It is a local treatment: it acts only on the area being irradiated.

Hormonal therapy

Some cancers grow fed by hormones: part of breast cancers, prostate cancers. Blocking that hormone slows the tumor. It is usually a long treatment, in pills or injections.

Targeted therapy and immunotherapy

Targeted therapy attacks a specific feature of the tumor's cells, with less harm to the rest than classic chemotherapy. teaches the body's own immune system to recognize and attack the cancer. Both are indicated by the tumor's molecular analysis: that is why the biopsy says more today than it used to.

01SurgeryRemoves the tumor and, if needed, the lymph nodes. It acts only in the operated area.
02ChemotherapyDrugs that travel through the whole body and act anywhere in it.
03RadiotherapyRadiation aimed at the tumor, acting only where it is pointed.
04HormonalBlocks the hormone that feeds the tumor, and is usually a long treatment.
05TargetedAttacks a specific feature of the cells, based on the molecular analysis.
06ImmunotherapyTeaches the immune system to attack the cancer, based on the molecular analysis.

Who decides the combination

It is decided by a team made up of the surgical oncologist, the medical oncologist, the radiation oncologist and the pathologist, with the tumor type, its stage and the patient's health in front of them. It is called a tumor board, and it is worth asking whether your case went through one.

The six cancer treatments, explained on one page.