Some cancers are slow growing and also spread slowly. They are still often confined to the site from which they arose when they are first detected. On the other hand, some cancers spread early and may be widespread throughout the body before the diagnosis is made. These latter cancers are difficult to treat.
If there are too many cancer cells they may overwhelm the body’s defences. Once treatment has been used and most of the cancer cells removed by surgery or other means, the body’s natural defences may then overcome the remaining cancer cells and so lead to cure.
The treatment of cancer is usually a team approach.
Surgery remains the most often employed method of treatment. The primary growth is removed, sometimes along with the draining lymph glands to which the cancer may have spread. Some cancer cells are sensitive to radiation and so the tumor or the lymph glands may be irradiated before or after surgery. Chemotherapy is rather a non-specific method of killing cancer cells using drugs. These drugs are not specific and kill normal body cells as well as cancer cells. However, they act on those cells which are reproducing themselves at the greatest rate which is why they kill more cancer cells than normal cells.
*236/71/1*
