Is Cancer Curable?
It is the most common question of every cancer patient. Here you can consult with the best medical oncologist for cancer treatment in Delhi. A cure means that cancer has gone away with treatment, no more treatment is needed, and the tumour is not expected to return.
It’s rare that a doctor can be sure that cancer will never come back. It takes time to know if cancer might come back in most cases. But, the longer a person is cancer-free, the better the chance that cancer will not come back. More often, when treatment appears to be successful, doctors will say the cancer is “in remission,” rather than “cured.”
Is Cancer Curable?
Is Ever Cancer Considered ‘Cured’?
No, cancer is not considered cured at least medically. Patients with increased disease-free survival rate or natural lifetime complete remission period after receiving treatment justify the statement that they lived free of disease symptoms but it does not refer to the statement that cancer is cured.
It is clinically predictable to only an extent but impossible to confirm the recurrence of cancer even with complete remission after treatment.
The reason behind this is less probability of diagnosing cancer or precancerous cells 100%.
Your medical oncologist can promise to closest and best for more than the five-year survival rate period. With no signs of cancer cells recurring in the body for five years(Disease-free survival time period).
However, this is followed by periodic screening which includes regular diagnostic tests for cancer during remission.
Treatments that compliments the cure of cancer:-
Many types of cancer are curable. Your treatment regimen is based on the type of cancer you have and how widespread it is. People with some types of cancer have only one treatment. But many involve a combination of treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, as well as surgery. It can also be immunotherapy, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy.
Diagnostic trials may also be an option. A diagnostic trial is a research study involving people. Which goes about the treatment of people. There is much to learn and think about when receiving cancer treatment. It is normal to feel nervous and confused. But talking to your doctor and learning about all of your treatment options, including clinical trials, can help you make a good decision that will make you feel better.
What is chemotherapy? And can it cure Cancer?
Chemotherapy is one of the common treatment options for many types of cancer. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy the developing cancer cells. Chemotherapy is planned to perform several functions. It helps treat cancer, repetition, stops its spread, or slows its growth. It can shrink large tumours and help relieve pain and other cancer-related symptoms. As a cancer treatment, chemotherapy may be used alone or in combination with other options. Other cancer treatments are often used along with chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, but they also damage healthy cells in the process. Hence chemotherapy has side effects such as fatigue, chapped lips, stomach problems, and hair loss.
Radiation therapy uses a large amount of energy beam to destroy cancer cells. As a cancer treatment, radiation therapy may be used alone or in combination with other treatment options. Helps shrink tumours and reduce symptoms of advanced cancer.
What is Radiation Therapy? And can it cure Cancer?
Radiation therapy is a type of treatment for cancer that can be used alone or in combination with other therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or targeted therapy. If your treatment plan includes radiation therapy, knowing how it works and what you can expect will help you prepare for treatment and make informed decisions about treatment.
Radiation therapy is offered in three main ways: external radiation therapy, internal radiation therapy, and systemic radiation therapy.
External radiation sends radiation to the tumour through a machine.
Internal radiation has a source of radiation inside the body, inside cancer, or near cancer.
In systemic radiation therapy, the radiopharmaceutical is given orally or by injection.
What is Surgery? And Can it cure cancer?
Surgery helps treat cancer by physically removing the tumor from the body. Most surgeries involve cutting into the body to access cancer. Depending on the location of cancer and other factors, the surgery may be open (with a large incision) or minimally invasive with a smaller incision (laparoscopic/robotic surgery). Other surgical methods use different methods, such as cryosurgery, which can kill cancer cells at low temperatures. Surgical goals in cancer treatment range from complete removal of the tumor to partial removal.
What is Hormone Therapy? And can it cure Cancer?
What is Hormone therapy?
Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that uses hormones to slow or stop the growth of growing cancer. Hormone therapy is also called hormonal therapy, hormone therapy, or endocrine therapy.
Hormones are the elements that act as chemical messengers in our bodies. They affect the function of cells and tissue in many places in the body, often reaching their destination with the bloodstream.
The hormones estrogen and progesterone are produced by the ovaries before menopause in women, and by certain other tissues, fat, and skin before and after menopause in men and women. Estrogen works to develop and maintain female sex characteristics and promote the development of long bones. Progesterone plays a role in menstruation and pregnancy.
The hormones estrogen and progesterone also promote certain breast cancers, which are called hormone-sensitive or hormone-dependent breast cancers. But in some cases, hormones can destroy, slow, or stop cancer cells.
Hormone therapy is a system of therapy to remove, add, or block hormones from the body to stop or slow the growth of cancer.
Hormone therapy usually involves drugs that block cancer cells from taking in hormones needed for growth. In some cases, your doctor surgically removes the gland responsible for producing the hormone. Your doctor may use hormone therapy along with other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Hormone therapy for breast cancer and menopausal hormone therapy or MHT – treatment with estrogen or progesterone to treat symptoms of menopause, there is a difference between the two, so don’t get confused.
These two types of therapy produce the exact opposite effect, hormone therapy for breast cancer by inhibiting the growth of breast cancer-promoting hormones while on the other hand, MHT can help in the growth of breast cancer-promoting hormones. That is why, when a woman is having MHT, it is advised to stop MHT before getting tested for breast cancer.
What is Immunotherapy? And can it cure Cancer?
Immunotherapy is a method of treatment in which the body’s immune system is activated to control the disease or rather to fight a disease. Active immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy that aims to stimulate the immune system. Cancer immunotherapy is used either when other modalities of cancer treatment (such as surgery, chemotherapy, etc.) have not worked or it is used as an additional treatment. Several methods of cancer immunotherapy such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, adoptive T cell transfer, cancer vaccines, immunomodulators, and oncolytic virus therapy are available. Although this method is clinically recognized, it can also have a number of side effects.
How does immunotherapy work for cancer treatment?
Which cancers are treated with immunotherapy? Types of immunotherapy used to treat cancer.
What is Targeted Therapy? And can it cure Cancer?
Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment. In targeted therapy, the drugs and injections used to treat the disease directly kill the cancer cells and make the patient feel better.
It targets proteins that regulate the growth, differentiation, and spread of cancer cells. When researchers discover changes in DNA and proteins that cause cancer, they can design better treatments to target those proteins.
What is Stem cell transplant ? And can it cure Cancer?
Stem cell transplantation is a process of restoring blood-forming stem cells in people that have been destroyed by high-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy used to treat certain types of cancer. Hematopoietic stem cells are important because they develop into different types of blood cells. The main types of blood cells are:
White blood cells are part of your immune system and help your body fight against infection.
Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body.
Platelets help in blood clotting.
So Does Cancer Come Back After Remission?
Cancer is not a single disease but it’s a combination of several mutations and diseases. Certain cancerous cells or precancerous cells still survive or take rebirth with associated mutations even after completing treatment after a dormant phase leading to recurrence.
Like Stage IV is generally an incurable condition; still, temporary remission can be achieved but cancer eventually recurs.
That’s why it is well said, “Cancer cannot be cured completely but can be treated completely”.
Never Lose Hope: let’s get treated for cancer. As staying in remission for a natural life can be a matter of chance where recurrence is not always a possibility.
Due to the fact that cancer treatment is constantly evolving with therapies and unraveling the raffling theoretical riddle of cancer causes in the oncology world.
