Many types of drug therapies are used to treat cancer. As well as chemotherapy, these include targeted therapy, immunotherapy and hormone therapy. Together they are known as anticancer drug treatments or systemic anticancer therapy.
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Overview
These other drug therapies work in different ways to destroy cancer cells, and may be used before or after chemotherapy, surgery or radiation therapy. You may have one drug or a combination of drugs. This often makes treatment more effective and reduces the chance of cancer cells becoming drug resistant.
Which drug therapy is right for me?
Testing to guide treatment
To see if certain drug therapies are an option, your doctor will suggest you have tests to look for gene changes or other features in the cells. The results will help your doctor decide which drug therapy is more likely to work. They will also consider the type and stage of cancer, your response to previous treatments, your future treatment options and your overall health.
How drug therapies work
Drug therapies such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy work for some people, but they don’t work for everyone. Sometimes cancer cells can stop responding to a drug even if it worked at first. In this case, your doctor may prescribe different drugs. Some of these drug therapies are part of standard treatment, while others are being tested in clinical trials. In most cases, targeted therapy and immunotherapy are used to treat advanced cancer. This is cancer that has spread or come back after the initial treatment.
Like chemotherapy, other drug therapies have treatment protocols. You can find these at eviQ Cancer Treatments Online.
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Prof Desmond Yip, Senior Staff Specialist, Department of Medical Oncology, The Canberra Hospital, ANU School of Medicine and Psychology, ANU College of Health & Medicine, The Australian National University, ACT; Gillian Blanchard, Nurse Practitioner, Calvary Mater, Newcastle, NSW; Ken Colbert, Consumer; Laura Collins, Clinical Dietitian, GenesisCare, WA; Karen Gray, Consumer; Kate Lucking, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Louise Moodie, Director of Dietetics, Mackay Hospital and Health Service, QLD; Dr Shivanshan Pathmanathan, Medical Oncologist, Townsville Cancer Centre, Townsville University Hospital, QLD; Dr Marissa Ryan, Acting Consultant Pharmacist (Cancer), Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD; Jayne Watson, Clinic Nurse Consultant, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC; Stephanie Webster, Consumer.
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