Cancer Treatment Modalities: Surgery, Radiation, Systemic Therapy, and Supportive Care

Cancer treatment is multidisciplinary, tailored to tumor type, stage, molecular profile, and patient factors. No single modality fits all.

Primary Modalities

1. Surgery: Resection of primary tumor ± regional nodes; curative for localized disease.
2. Radiation Therapy: Ionizing radiation damages DNA; external beam (IMRT, SBRT) or brachytherapy; curative or palliative.
3. Chemotherapy: Cytotoxic drugs (cell cycle–specific or non-specific); adjuvant, neoadjuvant, or metastatic settings.
4. Targeted Therapy: Small molecules or antibodies against driver mutations (EGFR, ALK, HER2, BCR-ABL, BRAF, PARP).
5. Immunotherapy: Checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1/PD-L1, CTLA-4), CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies, vaccines.
6. Hormone Therapy: For HR+ breast/prostate: SERMs, aromatase inhibitors, GnRH agonists, androgen receptor antagonists.
7. Stem Cell Transplant: Autologous (myeloma, lymphoma) or allogeneic (leukemia)—rescue after high-dose chemotherapy.

Integrative and Supportive Care

• Palliative Care: Symptom control, goals-of-care discussions, psychosocial support—concurrent with curative intent.
• Rehabilitation, Nutrition, Psychosocial Support, Financial Navigation.

Precision Oncology

Next-generation sequencing matches actionable alterations to targeted agents; molecular tumor boards optimize treatment sequencing.

Modern oncology is not one-size-fits-all—it's a dynamic, personalized strategy.