The Healthy You Is the Better You

Posted on: 30 May 2023

Hearing that you have cancer is a scary and uncertain feeling, but the care of the medical professionals at your local cancer center will help you through this experience. When your doctor begins to discuss various treatment options for your cancer, it's likely that they'll mention radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. Some cancer patients have success with only one of these forms of treatment, while others rely on all three of them. Your doctor will give their professional opinion about what course of treatment is best. Many people find surgery intimidating, but if your doctor advises the surgical route, it's important for you to understand the benefits of doing so.

Fewer Side Effects

Everyone responds differently to the various treatment options for cancer, but radiation and chemotherapy can both have some side effects that can be challenging. Even though these treatments can help to eliminate cancer, they can also cause issues such as fatigue, hair loss, and more. Surgery can be an ideal choice because it doesn't have these side effects. While you'll need some time to recover from the surgery just as you would with any surgical procedure, you might appreciate knowing that challenging side effects won't be a factor for you.

Less Time Commitment

When a cancer patient goes through chemotherapy, they often have several rounds of it. This means that you'll visit a medical center many times in the coming weeks for the team to administer the chemotherapy drugs. You'll also visit with medical professionals between these visits to monitor your health and determine how the chemotherapy drugs are affecting your cancer. This results in a significant time commitment, which can be a challenge for some families. Even though your cancer battle is of paramount importance, the reality is that your spouse may have trouble getting time off work to take you to all these appointments. Taking the surgery route often means one surgery appointment and then a few follow-up appointments, rather than regular sessions for weeks. The reduced time commitment may be ideal for some families.

Clear Results

When you have surgery to remove cancer from your body, the results are often clear in a short amount of time. For example, the doctor may feel confident that they removed all of the cancer during the surgery, and one or more follow-up appointments can reveal that this is the case. This can be ideal for someone who wants quick, conclusive results. Conversely, it can take longer to get results from chemotherapy. This treatment will cause the cancer to shrink, but it may take a long time until the cancer disappears. Keep these points in mind if your doctor recommends surgery as the best treatment for your cancer. 

For more information about cancer treatments, contact a local company.