In a study appearing in the March 17 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, primary lung cancer did not recur in nearly 98 percent of the 55 participants who received stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). More than half of these patients – 56 percent – were alive three years after diagnosis, while less than 20 percent ultimately died of metastatic lung cancer.

SBRT is a noninvasive procedure that delivers radiation beams to a tumor in a concentrated, extremely precise manner.

Conditions

Why people with cancer might need blood transfusions

What are transfusions?

A transfusion (trans-few-zhun) is putting blood or some part of it in a vein through an intravenous (IV) line. Transfusions of blood and blood products temporarily replace parts of the blood when a person has been bleeding, or when their body can’t make enough blood. The blood usually comes from another person, called a donor. Blood transfusions save millions of lives in the United States every year. People usually donate whole blood – blood taken right out of a vein through a needle. This whole blood may be called a unit or pint of blood, and equals about 450 milliliters or 16.7 ounces. But whole blood is rarely given as a transfusion. Blood has many parts (components), such as red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets (plate-lets), plasma, clotting factors, and small proteins. Each component does a different job. After it’s donated, whole blood is usually separated into components. This lets doctors give patients only the part they need. It also helps to get the most out of the donated blood.

Lasers in Cancer Treatment

What is photodynamic therapy?

Photodynamic therapy or PDT is a treatment that uses special drugs, called photosensitizing agents, along with light to kill cancer cells. The drugs only work after they have been activated or “turned on” by certain kinds of light. PDT may also be called photoradiation therapy, phototherapy, or photochemotherapy. Depending on the part of the body being treated, the photosensitizing agent is either put into the bloodstream through a vein or put on the skin. Over a certain amount of time the drug is absorbed by the cancer cells. Then light is applied to the area to be treated. The light causes the drug to react with oxygen, which forms a chemical that kills the cells. PDT might also help by destroying the blood vessels that feed the cancer cells and by alerting the immune system to attack the cancer. The period of time between when the drug is given and when the light is applied is called the drug-to-light interval. It can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, depending on the drug used

Types of stem cell transplants for treating cancer

In a typical stem cell transplant for cancer very high doses of chemo are used, often along with radiation therapy, to try to destroy all the cancer cells. This treatment also kills the stem cells in the bone marrow. Soon after treatment, stem cells are given to replace those that were destroyed. These stem cells are given into a vein, much like a blood transfusion. Over time they settle in the bone marrow and begin to grow and make healthy blood cells. This process is called engraftment

What is cancer immunotherapy?

How does targeted therapy work?

Targeted therapy is used to keep cancer from growing and spreading. To become cancer cells, normal cells go through a process called carcinogenesis (car-sin-oh-JEN-eh-sis). Cancer cells may then grow into tumors or reproduce throughout a body system, like blood cancers do. Scientists have learned a lot about the molecules that are part of this process and the signals a cell gets to keep this process going. Targeted therapy disrupts this process. The drugs target certain parts of the cell and the signals that are needed for a cancer to develop and keep growing. These drugs are often grouped by how they work or what part of the cell they target.

What is targeted therapy?

As researchers have learned more about the gene changes in cells that cause cancer, they have been able to develop drugs that target these changes. Treatment with these drugs is often called targeted therapy. Targeted therapy drugs, like any drug used to treat cancer, are technically considered “chemotherapy.” But targeted therapy drugs do not work in the same ways as standard chemotherapy drugs. They are often able to attack cancer cells while doing less damage to normal cells by going after the cancer cells’ inner workings—the programming that sets them apart from normal, healthy cells. These drugs tend to have different (and often less severe) side effects than standard chemotherapy drugs. Targeted therapies are used to treat many kinds of diseases. Here we will focus on their use to treat cancer. In the past, only a few cancers could be treated with targeted therapy, but now these drugs are used to treat many different types of cancer. Targeted therapies are a major focus of cancer research today. Many future advances in cancer treatment will probably come from this field.

What is chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy is the use of strong drugs to treat cancer. You will often hear chemotherapy called “chemo,” (key-mo) but it’s the same treatment. Chemo was first used to treat cancer in the 1950s. It has helped many people live full lives. The chemo drugs your doctor or nurse gives you have been tested many times. Research shows they work to help kill cancer cells.

How is surgery used for cancer?

Surgery can be done for many reasons. Some types of surgery are minor and may be called procedures, while others are much bigger operations. The more common types of cancer surgeries are reviewed here.