ANAL CANCER AWARENESS

Treatment

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Is there a Treatment for Anal Cancer?
There are several methods of treatment for anal cancer, some for successful than others. They include:

  • Surgery - removal of the cancerous area and surrounding tissue surgically. Depending how advanced the cancer is, surgical removal can be very invasive with a significant recovery period.
  • Radiation Therapy - radiation can be applied to the anal cancer by means of energy waves or small radioactive pellets. The goal of radiation therapy is to shrink the cancerous tumor.
  • Chemotherapy - drugs that kill cancerous cells are given orally or by intravenous infusion, again in order to kill and shrink the tumor. Chemotherapy can be affective but does cause several unpleasant side effects.

A More In Depth Look at Treatment:

How Anal Cancer Is Treated

There are treatments for all patients with anal cancer. Three kinds of treatment are used: surgery (taking out the cancer in an operation) radiation therapy (using high-dose x-rays or other high-energy rays to kill cancer cells) chemotherapy (using drugs to kill cancer cells).

Surgery is a common way to diagnose and treat anal cancer. Your doctor may take out the cancer using one of the following methods:

Local resection is an operation that takes out only the cancer. Often the ring of muscle around the anus that opens and closes it (the sphincter muscle) can be saved during surgery so that you will be able to pass your body wastes as before.

Abdominoperineal resection is an operation in which the doctor removes the anus and the lower part of the rectum by cutting into the abdomen and the perineum, which is the space between the anus and the scrotum (in men) or the anus and the vulva (in women). Your doctor will then make an opening (stoma) on the outside of the body for waste to pass out of the body. This opening is called a colostomy. Although this operation was once commonly used for anal cancer, it is not used as much today because radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy is an equally effective treatment option but does not require a colostomy. If you have a colostomy, you will need to wear a special bag to collect body wastes. This bag, which sticks to the skin around the stoma with a special glue, can be thrown away after it is used. This bag does not show under clothing, and most people take care of these bags themselves. Lymph nodes may also be taken out at the same time or in a separate operation (lymph node dissection).

Radiation therapy uses x-rays or other high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation may come from a machine outside the body (external radiation therapy) or from putting materials that produce radiation (radioisotopes) through thin plastic tubes in the area where the cancer cells are found (internal radiation therapy). Radiation can be used alone or in addition to other treatments.

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. Some chemotherapy drugs can also make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy can be used together to shrink tumors and make an abdominoperineal resection unnecessary. When only limited surgery is required, the sphincter muscle can often be saved.

Treatment By Stage

Treatments for anal cancer depend on the type of disease, stage of disease, your age, and your general health.

You may receive treatment that is considered standard based on its effectiveness in a number of patients in past studies, or you may choose to go into a clinical trial. Not all patients are cured with standard therapy, and some standard treatments may have more side effects than are desired. For these reasons, clinical trials are designed to find better ways to treat cancer patients and are based on the most up-to-date information. Clinical trials are going on in most parts of the country for most stages of anal cancer. If you wish to know more about clinical trials, call the Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237); TTY at 1-800-332-8615.

STAGE 0 ANAL CANCER

Your treatment will probably be local resection.

STAGE I ANAL CANCER

Your treatment may be one of the following: 1. Local resection (for some small tumors). 2. External radiation therapy with chemotherapy. Some patients may also receive internal radiation therapy. 3. If cancer cells remain following therapy, you may need surgery of the anal canal to remove the cancer.

STAGE II ANAL CANCER

Your treatment may be one of the following: 1. Local resection (for small tumors). 2. External radiation therapy with chemotherapy. Some patients may also receive internal radiation therapy. 3. If cancer cells remain following therapy, you may need surgery of the anal canal to remove the cancer.

STAGE IIIA ANAL CANCER

Your treatment may be one of the following: 1. Radiation therapy with chemotherapy. 2. Surgery. Depending on how much cancer remains following chemotherapy and radiation, local resection or surgery to remove cancer in the anal canal may be done. 3. Clinical trials of surgery (resection) followed by external radiation therapy. 4. Clinical trials of surgery followed by chemotherapy if chemotherapy has not been used prior to surgery.

STAGE IIIB ANAL CANCER

Your treatment will probably be radiation therapy and chemotherapy followed by surgery. Depending on how much cancer remains following chemotherapy and radiation, local resection or surgery to remove the anus and the lower part of the rectum (abdominoperineal resection) may be done. During surgery, the lymph nodes in the groin may be removed (lymph node dissection).

STAGE IV ANAL CANCER

Your treatment may be one of the following: 1. Surgery to relieve symptoms. 2. Radiation therapy to relieve symptoms. 3. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy to relieve symptoms. 4. Clinical trials.

RECURRENT ANAL CANCER

Your choice of treatment will be based on what treatment you received when the cancer was first treated. If you were treated with surgery, you may receive radiation therapy if the cancer recurs. If you were treated with radiation, you may have surgery if the cancer recurs. Clinical trials are studying new chemotherapy drugs with or without radiation therapy

Natural cancer treatments for Anal Cancer.

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