What is the term for using drugs to treat cancer?

What is the term for using drugs to treat cancer?

Chemotherapy refers to the use of any drug to treat any disease. But to most people, the word chemotherapy (or “chemo”) means drugs used for cancer treatment.

What is the use of drugs to destroy cancer cells?

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to destroy cancer cells. It usually works by keeping the cancer cells from growing, dividing, and making more cells.

What is used to kill cancer?

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-powered energy beams, such as X-rays or protons, to kill cancer cells. Radiation treatment can come from a machine outside your body (external beam radiation), or it can be placed inside your body (brachytherapy).

Can cancer cure?

Treatment. There are no cures for any kinds of cancer, but there are treatments that may cure you. Many people are treated for cancer, live out the rest of their life, and die of other causes. Many others are treated for cancer and still die from it, although treatment may give them more time: even years or decades.

What does chemotherapy mean in terms of cancer treatment?

Chemotherapy is the use of any drug to treat any disease. But to most people, the word chemotherapy means drugs used for cancer treatment. It’s often shortened to “chemo.” Surgery and radiation therapy remove, kill, or damage cancer cells in a certain area, but chemo can work throughout the whole body.

How are small molecule compounds used to treat cancer?

Small-molecule compounds are typically developed for targets that are located inside the cell because such agents are able to enter cells relatively easily. Monoclonal antibodies are relatively large and generally cannot enter cells, so they are used only for targets that are outside cells or on the cell surface.

How are targeted cancer therapies used to treat cancer?

Targeted Cancer Therapies. What are targeted cancer therapies? Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or other substances that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules (“molecular targets”) that are involved in the growth, progression, and spread of cancer.

What kind of treatment do you have for cancer?

Some people with cancer will have only one treatment. But most people have a combination of treatments, such as surgery with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.