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17. Treatment Choices

There are four main ways to battle cancer, and they often are combined.

 

You can remove the malignant tumor entirely (by surgery). You can use special x-rays to destroy key genetic material in cancer cells (by radiation). You can thwart the mechanisms that help cancer cells divide and multiply (by using chemo). And you can precisely target cancer cells to disrupt growth-related activities (using cell-targeted therapies, also known as "biologics").

Many patients rely on multiple therapies -- for example, surgery & chemo or chemo plus a cell-targeted drug.