Treatment 

Treatment Branch of the NACES Quality of Life Tree

Authors of the Treatment Branch are Linda U. Krebs, RN, PhD, AONN, FAAN and Linda Burhansstipanov, MSPH, DrPH (Cherokee Nation) 

"I don't know what to do, just like I, just really hurt just like somebody you know put me down, really weak, but I didn't say nothing.
Oh, doctor told me about the cancer they told me they don't grow fast, they grow for really slow so I told myself I think I'm not going to die (laughter). That's what I really think, I think I'm not going to die today or this winter."

  Annie Williams, Yupik, Dx 1992 with Breast Cancer

• More and better types of cancer treatment are being developed all of the time
  • The most recent are those that are in clinical trials
  • There are many different types of treatments for cancer
  • The most common treatments for cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy and adjunvant therapy
  • But scientists also are using different combinations of drugs to be more specific to your type of cancer or to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment.
  • They also are working on genetic and treatments that go deep into the cancer cells (molecular)
  • Some other treatments are designed to stop the cancer from growing, but those do not actually cure the cancer
    • This means that the cancer is not likely to cause your death, but the treatment keeps the cancer from growing or spreading
    • Anti-angiogenesis is an example of this type of treatment

Major Treatment Modalities

• Surgery
• Radiation
• Chemotherapy
• Targeted Therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Stem Cell Transplant