How Do Doctors Treat Cancer?
Most cancers can be treated, especially the types of cancers teens are likely to get. The number of people who beat cancer goes up every year because of new cancer treatments. There are three common methods for treating cancer: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Because cancer is different in each patient, each person’s treatment plan will be individually designed for him or her. A person with cancer may undergo any one of these treatments or a combination of them. A doctor who specializes in treating people with cancer is called an oncologist (pronounced: ahn-kah-luh-jist). Surgery removes cancerous tissue. Depending on the location of a person’s cancer, surgery can be simple or complex, so the operation may be an outpatient procedure (where a person is in and out of the hospital on the same day) or may require that the person stay in the hospital. Generally, the surgeon removes the cancerous tissue along with a small amount of the healthy tissue surrounding it to make sure that al
