Early detection examinations can help save lives and reduce suffering from most forms of cancer. Symptoms of cancer will manifest in the organ of the body effected by the growth, and can result in pain and discomfort, or physical abnormality, as is the case with breast and skin cancer. The most conventional methods for treating cancer are chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer. About 60 percent of people with cancer have had some type of operation.
Chemotherapy is the use of medicines and drugs to treat cancer.
Systematic chemotherapy uses anti-cancer drugs that are usually given into a vein or mouth. These drugs enter the bloodstream and reach all the areas of the body. Radiation therapy is one of the oldest, cost effective cancer therapies. From the time of the discovery of x-rays by William Roentgen and radioactivity by Marie and Pierre Curie, about a century ago, there have been efforts to use radiation to treat cancers. Advances in technology and a better understanding of how radiation works in the body have made radiation therapy a significant part of cancer treatment.