Cancer drugs

Chemotherapy is used to treat many types of cancer. For some people, chemotherapy may be the only treatment you receive. But most often, you will have chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. The types of treatment that you need depends on the type of cancer you have, if it has spread and where, and if you have other health problems. 

Chemotherapy can cure cancer, lessen the chance it will return, or stop or slow its growth. It can also be used to shrink tumors that are causing pain and other problems.

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system. 

Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy. Biological therapy is a type of treatment that uses substances made from living organisms to treat cancer.

Targeted therapy is the foundation of precision (personalized) medicine. It is a type of cancer treatment that targets the changes in cancer cells that help them grow, divide, and spread. You typically need to have a tumor tested to determine if drugs currently exist to target your tumor. A biopsy of your tumor is performed to test for targets.

Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that slows or stops the growth of cancer that uses hormones to grow. Hormone therapy falls into two broad groups, those that block the body’s ability to produce hormones and those that interfere with how hormones behave in the body. It is used to treat breast and prostate cancers that use hormones to grow.

The future of cancer treatment is personalized medicine – custom-designed treatment solutions tailored to your specific genetic makeup and situation. Spectrum Health Cancer Center is at the forefront with next generation technology that allows for rapid genetic sequencing of your cancer genes using a small tumor sample.