How modern cancer treatment works

Cancer care usually combines several approaches — surgery, radiation and drug therapy — chosen according to the cancer’s type, stage and, increasingly, its genetic make-up. Drug options have multiplied over the past two decades, and many patients now receive treatments that did not exist ten years ago.

The main types of cancer drugs

  • Chemotherapy — kills rapidly dividing cells; still a backbone of many regimens.
  • Targeted therapy — blocks a specific mutation or protein driving the tumour (for example EGFR, HER2, KRAS or ALK). It depends on testing the tumour first.
  • Hormone therapy — for hormone-driven cancers such as ER-positive breast cancer and prostate cancer.
  • Immunotherapy — checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4) release the “brakes” the tumour puts on the immune system.
  • Cell therapy — CAR-T engineers a patient’s own T cells to attack cancer; approved mainly for blood cancers so far.
  • Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) — antibodies that carry a potent payload directly to cancer cells.
  • Bispecific antibodies and T-cell engagers — molecules that physically link immune cells to tumour cells.
  • Radioligand therapy — targeted radioactive drugs that deliver radiation from inside the body.

Precision oncology

Testing a tumour’s DNA — from tissue or from a blood sample (“liquid biopsy”) — increasingly decides which drug a patient receives. Some approvals now apply only to cancers carrying a particular mutation, and come with a companion diagnostic test.

Screening and early detection

Cancers caught early are generally easier to treat. Established screening includes mammography, colonoscopy or stool tests, cervical (HPV) testing and low-dose CT for certain people at high risk of lung cancer. Multi-cancer blood tests are being evaluated but are not yet a substitute for standard screening.

How to read trial results

Overall survival is the gold standard. Progression-free survival measures how long the cancer is held in check, and response rate measures how many tumours shrink. Drugs approved on early measures under accelerated approval usually need a confirmatory trial. Below is every RxWyre oncology article, newest first — general information, not medical advice.