How is cancer cured? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Gary Larson, Medical Director- Procure Proton Therapy Center OKC, on Quora:
Cancer is cured when every malignant neoplastic cell is removed from the patient’s body.
- Neoplastic cells are those with the capacity for uncontrolled replication.
- Malignant neoplastic cells are (for the most part), those with the capacity to metastasize to other parts of the body (“benign” neoplasms are those that continue to grow and damage surrounding tissue, but don’t spread through the blood or lymphatic system – some “malignant” brain tumors don’t spread beyond the confines of the skull).
These malignant neoplastic cells can be:
- Removed surgically (local therapy).
- Irradiated (local therapy).
- Killed by chemotherapy (systemic therapy).
- Killed via the immune system (which probably happens to countless cancer cells before we even know that they are there). Immune modulating drugs may stimulate the immune system to attack the abnormal cells.
- Killed by blocking key enzymes necessary for cellular proliferation.
And others.
Probably, when we eliminate the vast majority of cancer cells, the immune system takes care of what may be left—but we don’t know this for sure.
