Most cancers are initially recognized either by clinical and diagnostic tests or symptoms. Certain medical tests such as blood tests, X-rays, CT scans endoscopy etc help in identifying tumors.
Biopsy, a histological examination is the definitive diagnosis for most malignancies. Study of immuno histochemistry and cytogenetical alterations are some of other tests practised by pathologists to diagnose tumors.
Treatment
Since “cancer” refers to a class of diseases, there is no single therapy to cure cancer. The choice of therapy depends upon the location of tumor, grade of the tumor, the juncture of the disease and general state of the patient (performance status).
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Surgery:
Cancers can be cured if removed entirely by surgery. This is possible only in the case of benign tumors, but in case of malignant tumors complete surgical excision is usually impossible because of their metastasis nature.
A single cancer cell invisible to the naked eye may move to any new location of the body and develop tumor even after surgery.
Chemotherapy
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Treating cancer through drugs is known as chemotherapy. Drugs used in chemotherapy are generally cytotoxic in nature; they interfere in cell division through various possible ways, such as in the duplication of DNA, in the separation of newly formed chromosomes etc. Chemotherapy cause ‘potential harm to healthy tissue also. Today many of the tumors can be cured by appropriate combination of chemotherapy.
Radiation Therapy:
Radiation therapy is the use of ionizing radiation to kill cells of tumor. It is also known as radiotherapy, X-ray therapy, or irradiation. Radiation therapy can be administered externally via external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or internally via brachytherapy (a form of radiotherapy where a radioactive source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment).
The effects of radiation therapy are localised and confined to the region being treated. Radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, but most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly.
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Hormonal Therapy
The growth of some cancers can be inhibited by providing or blocking certain hormones. Common examples of hormone-sensitive tumors include certain types of breast and prostate cancers.
Angiogenesis Inhibitors
Angiogenesis inhibitors prevent the extensive growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis) required by the tumors to survive.
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“Bevacizumab” a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor, have been approved as an angiogenesis inhibitor and is in clinical use.
Liposomal Therapy
It is a new technique that uses chemotherapy drugs that have been packaged inside liposome’s (synthetic fat globules). This liposome, or fatty coating, helps drugs in penetrate the cancer cells more selectively and decreases possible side effects (such as hair loss, nausea, and vomiting).
Examples of liposomal medications are Doxil (the encapsulated form of doxorubicin) and Daunoxome (the encapsulated form of daunorubicin).
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Targeted Therapy
It is a type of medication that blocks the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, rather than by simply interfering with rapidly dividing cells.
Targeted cancer therapies may be more effective than current treatments and less harmful to normal cells. The main categories of targeted therapy are small molecules and monoclonal antibodies. Many oncologists believe that targeted therapies are the chemotherapy of the future.
Immuno Therapy or Bilogic Therapy
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Immunotherapy is inducing patient’s own immune system to work against the tumor cells.
This can be achieved through immunization of the patient to train the patient’s own immune system to recognize tumor cells as targets to be destroyed, or through the administration of therapeutic antibodies as drugs.
Immunotherapy is the great hope for cancer treatment. While monoclonal antibodies, cytokines, and vaccines have individually shown some promise, a lot of research is going on to find some easy and effective therapy.