Treatment Options

There are many types of cancer and many ways to treat it. Arizona Cancer Center doctors recommend different treatments depending on the type of cancer and how far it has progressed. Often the best treatment is a combination of strategies.

Surgery

Doctors sometimes recommend surgery to remove cancerous or noncancerous tumors that are easily accessible. To decrease the risk of the cancer spreading, surgeons also may remove some healthy tissue around the tumor.

Drug Therapy

Chemotherapy treatment uses drugs, hormones, or biological agents to fight cancer. Chemotherapy treatments are given in different ways: orally; by injection into a muscle; by injection into a vein; or by injection into a catheter, a device that is attached to a major blood vessel. Biological therapy fights cancer by stimulating the immune system, your body’s natural defense. Doctors give biological response modifiers alone or with anticancer drugs.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy uses x-rays, gamma rays, or electrons to reduce the size of a tumor. Depending on the type of cancer, radiation may be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy and/or surgery. Radiation therapy often requires several visits over the course of a few weeks. For more information, visit the Department of Radiation Oncology's website.

With intraoperative radiation therapy, high-dose radiation is directed at the tumor site immediately following surgical removal of the tumor. The x-ray beam targets the affected area, leaving surrounding tissues unharmed.

Radiosurgery is a technique for treating brain or spinal tumors that are inaccessible or unsuitable for surgery. Using a CT scan (computed tomography), radiation oncologists can administer high doses of radiation to precisely defined targets. This technique minimizes the radiation dose to the rest of the brain or the spine.

Radioactive seed implants are used to treat prostate cancer. The "seeds" (either Iodine 125 or Palladium 103) are implanted into the prostate gland, where they emit low energy x-rays that travel just far enough to destroy the surrounding cancer but do not affect the rest of the body.

Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT)

Some cancers resist treatment with standard doses of chemotherapy or radiation. BMT is a procedure that makes it possible for patients to receive higher, more effective treatment doses. These high doses damage the bone marrow, the body’s source for blood cells. Following high-dose treatment, a BMT allows damaged or diseased bone marrow to be replaced with healthy marrow or peripheral stem cells.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is a research treatment intended to fight cancer by stimulating the body’s natural defense system or altering a tumor’s behavior. Under normal conditions, white blood cells attack foreign substances such as bacteria, viruses, or toxins. When it comes to fighting cancer cells, white blood cells often are fooled into inaction. With gene therapy, doctors inject the patient’s tumor with a foreign gene, which in turn may cause the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer cells and the foreign gene.

Clinical Trials of New Cancer Treatments

The Arizona Cancer Center offers standard treatments, as well as new cancer drugs that are being tested for their effectiveness. Depending on your diagnosis, your doctor may recommend that you enroll in a clinical trial. Clinical trials test new drugs, new combinations of drugs, or new anticancer treatment strategies, such as gene therapy, immunotherapy, and radiosurgery.

If you are interested in participating in a clinical trial, an Arizona Cancer Center research specialist will provide you with a written explanation of the proposed research treatment program, including risks and benefits. Your doctor or nurse will answer any questions you may have and will ask you to sign a consent form that includes useful information on the specific form of cancer and the research treatment. You will receive a copy of the consent form for your records.

Research treatments offered by the Arizona Cancer Center are reviewed at a number of levels nationally and/or locally to ensure both the protection of patients’ rights and the scientific merit of the research. Local review boards include The University of Arizona Human Subjects Committee and the Arizona Cancer Center Scientific Review Committee. In addition to initial review, all studies are periodically reviewed again to assess progress.

The Arizona Cancer Center will not enroll you in a research treatment without your understanding, agreement and consent. You may withdraw at any time from a research treatment. This will not affect the quality of care you will receive at the Arizona Cancer Center.

 

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