Naturally, doctors cannot be available 24 hours a day. But your doctor should have a coverage or on-call system so that you will always be able to reach someone if you have a question or medical problem. The primary goal of cancer treatment is to cure. If cure is not possible, treatment is often still possible and appropriate to achieve long term control of the illness and to manage the symptoms associated with cancer. Your doctor may also prescribe other treatments, such as anti- anxiety medicines, nutritional supplements, pain medicine, etc. to help relieve your symptoms.
Cancer therapy consists of both standard and experimental treatment.
Standard treatment means the kind of therapy that any doctor who treats a person with cancer is expected to deliver. Standard treatment offers you the best hope of obtaining a cure. Because not every person with a particular type of cancer will be cured by standard treatment, medical researchers are constantly seeking improvements and testing experimental treatments. Your doctor should be knowledgeable about what is standard for your particular cancer. He or she should also inform you of the expected results of that treatment.