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Alternate Methods for Cancer Treatment

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Submitted By kmoore11
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Alternative Methods for Cancer Treatment
Kevin Moore
COM/172
April 16, 2012
Darrell Haley

Alternative Methods for Cancer Treatment
If someone you know is being treated for cancer, you may want to learn more about what they are going through. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are the main types of cancer treatment. However there are alternative methods for cancer treatment. Surgery is often the first treatment option if the tumor can be taken out of the body. Sometimes only part of the tumor can be removed. Radiation, chemotherapy, or both might be used to shrink the tumor before or after surgery. Doctors use chemotherapy to kill cancer cells. The term chemotherapy (often shortened to "chemo") refers to the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Usually, the drugs are given intravenously (into a vein, IV) or taken by mouth. Chemo drugs then travel through the body in the bloodstream, reaching cancer cells that may have spread (metastasized) from the tumor to other places in the body. Radiation therapy uses high energy rays (such as x-rays) to kill cancer cells or shrink tumors. The radiation may come from outside the body (external radiation) or from radioactive materials put right into the tumor (internal or implant radiation). Getting external radiation is much like getting an x-ray. The radiation itself is painless, but tissue damage may cause side effects. Other, newer kinds of treatment you might hear about include Nutrition, Acupuncture or herbs, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Immunotherapy is treatment designed to boost the cancer patient’s own immune system to help fight the cancer. Targeted therapy is treatment that targets the cancer cells and causes less damage to healthy cells. You might know someone else being treated for the same type of cancer, but don't assume that

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