Oncology



Oncology is the medical study and treatment of cancer. A physician who
practices oncology is an oncologist. The term is from the Greek onkos,
meaning bulk or mass, and the suffix -ology, meaning study of.

The traditional methods of oncology, or means of treating cancer, are
surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Surgery involves cutting out
malignant tumors. Chemotherapy involves administering chemicals to the
patient to affect the cancer. Radiation therapy involves direction of
radiation to concentrate on the cancerous tissue to kill it.

A significant problem with treatment methods such as surgery and directed
radiation is that destruction of the primary tumor often results in other
dormant micrometastases becoming active. In other words, once the main
cancer is removed, other cancer sites often pop up throughout the body.

Many other types of therapy have been tried with cancer patients. Some of
these have been discredited by the medical community, such as amygdalin,
also known as laetrile, an extract of apricot pits. Other herbal
preparations are being tried by various practitioners. Some physicians have
claimed significant success with a modified means of delivering
chemotherapy, termed IPT or insulin potentiation therapy.

Other efforts have centered on trying to bolster the body's immune system's
ability to deal with the cancer. Unfortunately, many cancers present surface
configurations that exactly mimic their original healthy parent cells, so
that most immunotherapies are useless against them.

Some patients also use what are known as "adjunctive therapies", including
such practices as visualization. While these are largely not proven to be
effective, they are mostly at least harmless and often supportive of the
patient's state of mind while they are undergoing medical therapies.

Cancer - List of Famous Cancer Patients - Medical Topics - Medical_Terms - Medicine - Alternative Therapies -