Cancer Treatment Options

Chemotherapy can be used to treat many types of cancer, either as the sole treatment or in conjunction with other cancer treatments. It can be administered orally via pills, capsules or liquid; through injections or an IV; through a port; and even through a topical cream or other means.

Medical oncologists at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute use chemotherapy to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, which can grow and divide rapidly. It can also ease cancer symptoms by shrinking tumors that cause pain and other problems.

Chemotherapy can be used before radiation therapy or surgery to decrease the size of a tumor. It can also destroy any cancer cells that remain after another form of cancer treatment.

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy applies heated chemotherapy drugs directly to the affected areas of the abdomen to eliminate any hard-to-find tumor cells. It is usually part of a two-step procedure that begins with open surgery to remove or “debulk” any visible tumors before treating the area with the heated chemotherapy. HIPEC allows for a higher dose of chemotherapy to be applied directly into the abdomen at a high temperature, which augments its effectiveness in killing cancer cells compared to traditional intravenous chemotherapy.

Hormone therapy, or hormonal therapy, is used to treat prostate and breast cancers, both of which rely on hormones to grow and spread. There are two types of hormone therapies: those that block the body’s ability to produce hormones and those that interfere with how hormones behave in the body.

Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute uses hormone therapy in combination with other cancer treatments to stop or slow cancer growth. For men with prostate cancer, it can reduce or prevent symptoms in cases where they are not able to have surgery or radiation therapy.

The most common ways hormone therapy is administered are orally via a pill, an injection, or surgery to remove organs that produce hormones, such as the ovaries or testicles.

Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy using substances made from living organisms to help your immune system fight cancer. The immune system will naturally try to fight infections and other diseases, but some cancer cells are capable of counteracting or even confusing the immune system.

Several types of immunotherapies can be deployed, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell transfer therapy, monoclonal antibodies, treatment vaccines and immune system modulators – all of which either beef up the immune system’s capabilities or target cancer cells to make them more visible to your immune system’s defenses.

Immunotherapy can be administered orally via a pill, through an IV, through a topical cream or other means.

This type of cancer treatment targets specific proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide and spread. Medical oncologists at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute use two types of targeted therapy:

• Small-molecule drugs administered as pills or capsules that can easily enter cells
• Monoclonal antibodies, or proteins that can attach to specific targets found on cancer cells, alerting the immune system so they can be seen easily and destroyed. The antibodies are administered through an injection.

At Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute, surgeons can treat, manage and prevent various types of cancers. A surgeon not only removes tumors, cancerous cells and growths, but also takes measures to avoid the potential spread and further risk of more cancer.

Surgery can treat many types of cancers, such as removing solid tumors, removing portions of a tumor (debulking) that otherwise might damage an organ if fully removed, and removing tumors as a way to ease some cancer symptoms.

Sometimes surgery is the only treatment needed, but it is often used in combination with other cancer treatments.

Our surgeons provide comprehensive care within a multidisciplinary team, specializing in minimally invasive procedures such as Laparoscopic and Robotic Assisted treatment of tumors. Our surgeons have undergone specialty training and offer a high degree of specialization and expertise. Cancer surgery is generally considered complex, and published data have demonstrated that hospitals and surgeons with the highest volume experience with specific operations have the lowest complication and death rates.

Our surgeons and interventional radiologists offer a breadth of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, including:

• Laparoscopic treatment of cancer
• Advanced surgical lymphedema therapy
• Non-invasive treatment of benign and malignant tumors with breakthrough Gamma Knife Icon
• Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) for Colorectal, Thoracic and Head and Neck surgery, which improves patient outcomes and decreases recovery time.
• Interventional diagnostic, therapeutic and staging procedures
• Mediport insertions to facilitate chemotherapy infusion
• A wide array of image guided percutaneous biopsies

Our surgeons specialize in the following areas:

• Breast & GYN
• Colorectal
• Esophageal
• Head and Neck
• Liver
• Lung
• Pancreatic
• Skin and Soft Tissue
• Urology