The cancer treatments are categorized into 2 types

  1. Conventional Cancer treatments
  2. Non-Conventional Cancer Treatments

In this article we will understand what are the conventional and non-conventional cancer treatments in India, and how do they work.

Conventional Cancer Treatments

Conventional cancer treatments are all well-known cancer treatments which are widely accepted and practiced by a majority of professional all around the globe.

The well-known conventional treatments for cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy etc. People also undergo any other conventional therapies as a part of their treatment, and many people undergo a combination of these treatments depending on their requirements.

With the day to day advancements in the healthcare sector, conventional therapies are also being constantly evolving, with several newer research and developments in science and technology, in order to improve the effectiveness of medications while diminishing the harmful side effects. Thereby, giving a new healthy life to people.

Like for example, advancements such as tomotherapy allow for the retreatment of tumors in those areas that are not otherwise in a condition to withstand further radiations. Clinical trials have opened the doors and is a ray of new hope for people with cancer and like diseases to explore previously unavailable treatment options.

Besides conventional cancer treatment, people are also resorting to homeopathic therapy as it acts at the molecular level through the process of immunotherapy where body’s immunity is boosted enough to fight against cancer on its own. The homeopathic therapy has least side-effects and is given in diluted doses.

Each treatment method is good on its own. And most of the time combination of all the treatment is being required for combating the disease. Certain cancers respond way better to multiple therapies used together rather than the treatment with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy alone.

Chemotherapy

What is Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy or chemo is a cancer treatment which makes use of medication or combination of medications to treat the disease. The ultimate goal of chemo is to completely stop or slow the growth and division of cancer cells.

It is a systemic therapy ie: it affects the entire body. Besides attacking rapidly growing cancer cells, chemotherapy can also affect the healthy cells that are growing rapidly.

How Does Chemotherapy Works

Chemotherapy medications work by:

  • Impairing the process of mitosis, or preventing cell division, as in the case of cytotoxic drugs
  • They can either target the cancer cells’ food source, consisting of enzymes and hormones needed by them for their growth.
  • They can trigger the destruction of cancer cells, medically known as apoptosis which is programmed cell death.
  • They can stop the growth of new blood vessels which supplies tumor in order to starve it.

Thus, chemotherapy works by three means:

  • CURE: Chemotherapy works by destructing cancer cells. It works to the core where no one is able to detect them further.
  • CONTROL: Chemotherapy’s main objective is to keep the check or control on spreading cancer to other parts of the body.
  • EASE SYMPTOMS: In cases where chemotherapy cannot control the spreading of cancer, it shrinks the tumor so that the patient is relieved of any pain or pressure experienced by him.

How is Chemotherapy administered or Given

Chemotherapy may be administered in many ways.                              

  • Oral: The drug is given in form of pills, capsules, or liquids that one can swallow
  • Intravenous (IV): The drug goes directly into a vein
  • Injection: The drug is given by a shot in a muscle in the arm, thigh, or hip, or right under the skin in the fatty part of the body.
  • Intrathecal: The drug is injected into the space between the layers of tissue covering the brain and spinal cord.
  • Intraperitoneal (IP): The drug goes directly into the peritoneal cavity. It is an area in the body containing organs like intestines, stomach, and liver.
  • Intra-arterial (IA): The drug is injected directly into the artery that leads to cancer.
  • Topical: The drug is applied directly to the skin surface.

Surgery

What is surgery and how it is being done to treat cancer

Surgery is a way of prevention, diagnosis, staging, and treating the disease of cancer. Surgery relieves pain, and (palliate) discomfort related to cancer.

People with cancer undergoes one or more surgical procedures in order to treat cancer.

Different ways by which surgery is used to help prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer:

  • Preventive surgery: It removes precancerous, abnormal, and sometimes normal tissue before it turns or could become cancerous.
  • Diagnostic surgery: It is used for the detection of the disease in the patient. In a biopsy procedure, a small portion of tissue is being removed to detect out if it is cancerous or not in the lab.
  • Staging surgery: It removes tissue for detecting how much cancer has widespread in the defective area.
  • Curative surgery: It removes a tumor that has not spread beyond its original place.
  • Cytoreductive or debulking surgery: It removes maximum part of the tumor and is usually followed with chemotherapy or radiation to destroy the rest of cancer.
  • Palliative surgery: It is done to relieve cancer symptoms.
  • Reconstructive surgery: It rebuilds tissue and restores the functioning or appearance of a part of the body that is affected by cancer or during treatment gets affected by it.

Radiation Therapy

What is Radiation Therapy and How It Combats Cancer

Radiation therapy makes use of high-energy radiations which shrink tumors and kill cancer cells.Radiations used are X-rays, gamma rays, and charged particles for cancer treatment.

The radiation therapy is given by the help of a machine used outside the body known as external-beam radiation therapy, or it may be given by radioactive material placed in the body near cancer cells, it is known as internal radiation therapy or brachytherapy.

The type of radiation therapy to be prescribed depends on many factors, which includes:

  • Cancer type
  • Cancer size.
  • Cancer’s location in the body.
  • The Closeness of cancer to normal tissues that are sensitive to radiation.
  • Patient’s general health.
  • Patient’s medical history.
  • Whether the patient has taken any other cancer treatment.
  • Patient’s age
  • Other medical conditions of the patient.

What is External-beam Radiation Therapy

External-beam radiation therapy is the most common type of radiation therapy. It is delivered by a machine outside the body treating large areas of the body.

A machine is known as a linear accelerator, or linac forms the radiation beam for x-ray or photon radiation therapy. This targets the tumor while avoiding healthy tissues present in cancer cells.

The various  types of external-beam radiation therapy are:

  • Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT).
  • Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).
  • Proton beam therapy.
  • Stereotactic radiation therapy.
  • Internal radiation therapy

What is Internal Radiation Therapy

Internal radiation therapy is also known as brachytherapy. Radioactive material is placed on the surface of near cancer or surrounding tissue. The radioactive implant can be permanent or temporary and may sometimes require a hospital stay.

Types of internal radiation therapy include:

  • Permanent implants.
  • Temporary internal radiation therapy.
  • Radiation therapy is given by either of the ways:
  • Through needles
  • Through tubes, called catheters, that carry fluid in or out of the body
  • Through special applicators

The radiation stays inside the body after administration says from a few minutes to a few days.

Other radiation therapy options available are:

  • Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). Through this treatment radiation therapy is given to the tumor during surgery by using either external-beam or internal radiation therapy.
  • Systemic radiation therapy. In this patients has to swallow or receive an injection of radioactive materials which is capable to target cancer cells. The radioactive materials are then excreted out from the body through saliva, sweat, and urine.
  • Radioimmunotherapy. It is a type of systemic therapy. Here monoclonal antibodies are used to deliver radiations targeting directly cancer cells. It does not affect non-cancerous cells.
  • Radiosensitizers and radioprotectors. These substances better destroy tumors with the help of radiation therapy.

Non-Conventional Cancer Treatments

Immunotherapy

What is Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy works by reinforcing the body’s power to protect on its own. India is a well-known center for immunotherapy cancer treatment.

The immune system body’s defense system comprising of over 20 trillion cells, proteins, and other substances to fight against numerous diseases.

The immune system is always on the lookout for bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders. However, cancer cells being damaged cells created by the body and they are not a foreign invader like a virus, so the body’s immune system never recognizes them as hostile.

Immunotherapy for biological therapy acts as biological response modifier therapy. It acts by stimulating body’s immune system so that it can fight on its own to kill cancer cells.

How Immunotherapy Fight Against Cancer

  • By stopping or inhibiting the processes that allow cancer cells to grow
  • By inhibiting the transformation of normal cells into cancerous one.
  • By helping the immune system to recognize cancer cells.
  • By making the cells of the immune system into more efficient cancer-fighters.
  • By changing the way cancer cells grow, so that they can act more like normal cells.
  • By inhibiting cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body.
  • By enhancing the body’s capacity so that it can fix the damage caused to healthy cells by other cancer treatments.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy Works Along the Lines of Immunotherapy

It is based on the principle of “ like cures like” and “ minimum doses with maximum dilution”. The motive behind this is to treat the disease at the molecular level completely eradicating it.

The homeopathic drug increases the body’s normal healing power and self-regulatory processes. Thereby, making the body to fight against the disease on its own.

Homeopathy comprises of working on the “whole person” approach.

In homeopathy, any remedy or treatment program is customized according to patient requirements as a whole, keeping the intent of removing the underlying cause.

Is Homeopathy Therapeutically More Effective

Arnold Schultz Law rightly expresses highlighting the differences between conventional and homeopathic treatment approaches as larger doses of a poisonous substance may prove lethal, whereas smaller doses of the same substance actually stimulate the vital cellular activity of cure.

Consequently, it has been found that ultra-micro doses of homeopathic medicines exert a profound influence in curing the patient.

Another difference found in between conventional and homeopathic treatment is as, in conventional therapy, most often the target is to control the illness through the regular use of medicines, no matter even if the medicine is just vitamins. And in this case also whenever the medication is withdrawn,  the person returns to illness. So to say there is no permanent cure.

For example, a patient taking a pill for high blood pressure every day is not seeking any cure instead he is just controlling the symptoms.

Conventional treatment, therefore, offers a series of suppressive medicines, which just only suppress the symptoms and something that makes a person at ease so that he can fall asleep peacefully.

On the other hand, homeopathic treatment acts on the immune system directly.

So whenever a disease invades the human body, symptoms are produced.

Then the ultra-diluted homeopathic medicines produce a drug effect in the body activating the immune system. They then act as per the symptoms and diagnosis. The immunity is boosted stronger than the disease leading to the restoration of the patient’s health.

Moreover, conventional medicines target the disease directly. After diagnosis, the infection is detected, then according to it, a drug is administered, which kills the pathogen. These drugs, in the process of killing the infections, many times start killing the normal body cells also and produce numerous side effects, thereby making the patient weaker.

Thus, it can be said no single treatment is complete enough to suffice patient’s needs. 

Candrol

What is Candrol

A well-known 4th modality cancer treatment only available in India. It is being readily accepted along with every conventional cancer treatment modality across 100 countries around the globe. The treatment is 100% safe and having 70-80% success rate.

Know more about Candrol

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