CANCER STAGES AND TREATMENT

Ramesh Jayaraman, DoseQuantics Consulting

Stage of Cancer

Types of Cancer Treatment

The treatment of cancer is based on the stage of cancer and its location in the body. The treatment can be one type or a sequence of different types based on the complexity of the cancer.

If the tumor is small, it is removed surgically. If it is in a location where surgery or chemotherapy is not feasible, radiation is used. If a tumor is large it is shrunk by radiation, surgically removed followed by targeted, chemo- or immunotherapy. Late stages of cancer (stage 4) are normally treated with chemo, targeted and immunotherapies.

The probability of cure is high when detected at earlier stages (stage1,2) and decreases with advancing stages (stages 3,4). Unfortunately, most cases are detected at stages 3 and 4 for which treatment can extend survival than achieve cures for majority of cancers.

However, there is hope for achieving cures with more advanced treatment modalities like CAR-T, cell based, and mRNA based therapeutics.