Cancer therapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (pronounced keem-o-therapy) is the use of certain drugs to treat disease, as distinct from other forms of treatment, such as surgery. Chemotherapy dates at least as far back as the use, by the Indians of Peru, of cinchona bark in the treatment of fevers, such as malaria. The first modern chemotheraputic agent was Paul Ehrlich's arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1909 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by penicillin.
Please note that today, the term chemotherapy is mostly used for the drug treatment of cancer, and the rest of this article discusses that topic. Antibiotics are referred to as antibacterial chemotherapy, but in medical practice this word is only used in the context of the treatment of tuberculosis.
Other uses of chemotherapy agents (including the ones mentioned below) are the treatment of autoimmune disease (DMARDs).
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). Although radiotherapy is often used as part of curative therapy, it is occasionally used as a palliative treatment, where cure is not possible and the aim is for symptomatic relief. Other rare uses are to wipe out the immune system prior to transplant to reduce the incidence of tissue rejection, called TBI or Total Body Irradiation; to calm hyperactive muscles -- such as might cause twitchy eyes -- with mild superficial treatments; and to form scar tissue around a STENT to reinforce the vascular wall.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a disease treatment based upon the concept of triggering the body's own natural defenses to fight off the disease, usually by stimulating the immune system either locally or systemically.
Oncology represents one of the most actively researched areas of immunotherapy, and offers the promise of new therapies for cancer, based upon the idea of stimulating the patient's immune system to attack the malignant tumor cells that are responsible for the disease.
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