Cancer treatments may involve surgery alone or combined with one or all of the individual therapies listed below. Surgery may recommended be to obtain a diagnosis or to completely excise the cancer. Surgery is usually performed first but is some cases it may be recommended after either chemotherapy or radiotherapy (neoadjuvant therapy).

Radiotherapy
The use of high energy x-rays to treat patients with malignant disease. Radiotherapy beams can be directed very accurately to any area of the body using highly sophisticated machines. The most commonly used of these are called a linear accelerators, with other machines  called orthovoltage or superficial depending on the energy of the X-rays required. It is also possible to deliver radiotherapy to small volumes of the body using radioactive wires or seeds, which produce gamma rays.

Chemotherapy
The use of drugs or chemicals to treat cancer. These can be given orally or into a vein and essentially poison the cells in the body - It successful more cancer cells than normal cells or killed. Your cancer specialist has a choice of over fifty different drugs that can be used as single agents or in a variety of different combinations.

Hormone therapy
Many tumours particularly breast and prostate are stimulated by the bodies own hormones (usually the female hormone oestrogen or the male hormone testosterone). Hormone therapy uses strategies to stop or reduce the bodies hormones reaching the tumour cause the cancer cells and by doing so stop them growing.

Biological therapy
The use of biological agents which specifically target genetic sites within the tumour or supportive tissues. They can be broadly classified as small molecules - usually tyrosine kinase receptors (e.g. Sunitinib) or monoclonal antibodies (Mab) which are large molecules (e.g. Herceptin) which attack via the immune system either on the blood vessels (anti-angiogenesis) or the also the tyrosine kinase pathway. 

Complementary therapy
This refers to supportive methods that are used to complement, or add to, mainstream treatments. Examples might include meditation to reduce stress, peppermint tea for nausea, and acupuncture for chronic back pain. Some of the methods, such as massage therapy, yoga, and meditation, that are categorized as complementary have actually been referred to as supportive care in the past.

Further general information Your doctors and specialist nurses are in an ideal position to give you relevant information on your disease and treatment as they know your individual circumstances. Cancerbackup has a help line (0808 800 1234) and a prize winning video available in English, Italian, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati & Hindi explaining Radiotherapy & Chemotherapy. Cancernet.co.uk has over 500 pages describing cancer, its management, practical tips and tool which patients, their carers and their doctors have found helpful during the cancer journey.