Common palliative treatments

See below for some common types of palliative care treatments.

Surgery

Surgery can be used to:

• remove all or part of a tumour from affected areas, such as the bowel or lymph nodes
• relieve discomfort caused by tumours blocking organs or pressing on nerves
• reduce tumour size (debulking) to help improve outcomes from chemotherapy and radiation therapy
• insert a thin tube (stent) into a blocked organ to create a passage for substances to pass through

Learn more about Surgery.

Drug therapies

Drugs can travel throughout the body. This is called systemic treatment.

Drug therapies include:

• chemotherapy – the use of drugs to kill or slow the growth of cancer cells
• hormone therapy – drugs that stop the body’s natural hormones from helping some cancers to grow
• immunotherapy – treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer
• targeted therapy – drugs that target specific features of cancer cells to stop the cancer growing.

Some drug therapies can reduce a cancer that is causing pain because of its size or location; slow the growth of a cancer; and help control symptoms, including pain and loss of appetite. Other drug therapies can reduce inflammation and relieve symptoms such as bone pain.

Radiation therapy

This uses a controlled dose of radiation to kill or damage cancer cells so they cannot grow, multiply or spread. Radiation therapy can shrink tumours or stop them spreading further. It can also relieve some symptoms, such as pain from secondary cancers in the bones. You can have radiation therapy in different ways and doses. It can be given in single or multiple visits.

Learn more about Radiation therapy.

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