Many types of drug therapies are used to treat cancer. As well as chemotherapy, these include targeted therapy, immunotherapy and hormone therapy. Together they are known as anticancer drug treatments or systemic anticancer therapy. The different drug therapies work in different ways to destroy cancer cells.
Learn more about:
Overview
These other drug therapies may be used before or after chemotherapy, surgery or radiation therapy. You may have one drug or a combination of drugs. This approach often makes treatment more effective and reduces the chance of cancer cells becoming resistant to a particular drug.
Which drug therapy is right for me?
To work out if particular drug therapies are an option for you, your cancer specialist will suggest you have tests to look for gene changes or other features in the cells. The results will help your doctor decide which drug therapy is more likely to work for you. They will also consider the type and stage of cancer, your response to previous treatments, your future treatment options and your overall health.
Drug therapies such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy work for some people, but they don’t work for everyone. Sometimes cancer cells can stop responding to a drug therapy even if it worked at first. In this case, your doctor may prescribe different drugs. To help more people access other drug therapies, researchers are trying to understand why some people’s cancers respond better than others.
Some of these drug therapies are part of standard treatment, while others are being tested in clinical trials. In most cases, drug therapies such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy are used to treat advanced cancer. This is cancer that has spread or come back after the initial treatment.
Like chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy have treatment protocols. You can find these at eviQ Cancer Treatments Online.
Podcast: Making Treatment Decisions
Listen to more episodes from our podcast for people affected by cancer
More resources
A/Prof Kate Mahon, Director of Medical Oncology, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW; Katherine Bell, Dietetics Department, Liverpool Hospital, NSW; Brigitta Leben, Dietetics Department, Liverpool Hospital, NSW; Sophie Michele, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Dr Jess Smith, Medical Oncologist, Macquarie University Hospital, NSW; Karene Stewart, Consumer; Julie Teraci, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Skin Cancer and Melanoma, Cancer Network WA.
View the Cancer Council NSW editorial policy.
