Cancer treatment has conventionally been built on three therapies, nicknamed the “three pillars of cancer treatment.” These are surgical therapy, radiotherapy, and drug therapy.

1. Surgical Therapy

Surgical therapy involves detecting cancer at as early a stage as possible, then removing it surgically. This form of therapy aims to achieve a complete cure through early detection. In order to do so, early detection through medical checkups is key.

2. Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy involves bombarding cancer cells with radiation. Much like surgical therapy, if the cancer is at an early stage, it is possible to fully cure it through radiotherapy. Because radiotherapy does not require the body to be cut open, it can be more suitable for patients with less physical strength, such as elderly patients. Radiation can also be used to help control symptoms, such as pain from bone metastases or lesions from brain metastases.

3) Anti-Cancer Drug Therapy

Anti-cancer drug therapy can be used in a wide variety of situations, such as when cancer has spread throughout a patient’s body and cannot be surgically removed, or when patients have a cancer for which local treatment is not an option, such as cancer of the blood. Additionally, for example, a tumor might be too large to remove surgically, so drug therapy might be employed to shrink it before surgery (multidisciplinary treatment), or surgical removal of cancer might be followed with drug therapy, in order to prevent the cancer from recurring (postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy).