Adjuvant Therapy

Adjuvant therapy is treatment you may have after cancer surgery to remove a tumor. It’s a common treatment for several cancer types, including breast cancer and lung cancer. Adjuvant therapy may involve systemic therapies, like chemotherapy, targeted therapy or hormone therapy. Adjuvant therapy is treatment after cancer surgery to destroy tiny cancer cells that surgery misses. It’s also known as helper therapy. Adjuvant therapy may reduce the risk that cancer will come back or spread. It may also help you live longer. People with breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer or melanoma may have adjuvant therapy. Your surgeon may recommend this treatment even if surgery has removed a tumor.

In most of the cases where the tumor has been removed the adjuvant therapy is used. The reason is that although the tumour has been removed from the body but the cancer cells in the blood cannot be removed by surgery. For their removal a adjuvant therapy is required which may be in the form of chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy.

Criteria

A cancer specialist or the team of cancer surgeon and medical oncologist may look at various criteria to for deciding the type of adjuvant therapy needed. These criteria may be as under:

Staging of Cancer - This includes tumor size and whether tests find cancer in your lymph nodes. Large tumors are more likely to spread to nearby tissues. Cancer in nearby lymph nodes increases the chance that cancer cells are somewhere else.

Grade of Cancer - Cancer specialists check cancer cells under a microscope to see how they compare with healthy cells. Higher-grade cells look very different from healthy cells. They’re more aggressive and more likely to spread. This is a strong enough reason for adding adjuvant therapy to the line of treatment.

Cancer Cell Feature - For ever cancer specialist the life after the treatment is an important yardstick. This is the reason they leave no stone unturned to ensure that the cancer cells are cleared from the body as far as possible. They look for specific genetic mutations, biomarkers and proteins. These are signs that cancer is more likely to come back. Accordingly the adjuvant therapy is planned for the particular patient.

Types and Cost

There are various types of adjuvant therapy that include:

Chemotherapy - This treatment sends medication throughout your body. Your provider may recommend it if you have breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer or melanoma.

Hormone Therapy - This is adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. It keeps your body from making hormones that help cancer cells grow.

Immunotherapy - This is a common adjuvant therapy for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma. It helps your immune system find and destroy microscopic cancer cells.

Targeted Therapy - his treatment works by blocking proteins that help cancer cells grow. It’s a treatment for breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma.

Dr Singh is one of the best medical oncologist in Bhagalpur, Bihar for the treatment and management of cancer. He specializes in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies for various types of cancer. If you have an individual health insurance policy then this surgery is covered after a period of 2 years from the date of inception of the policy. However if you are a beneficiary of company given policy then the surgery is covered from day one. Always go through the terms of your health insurance policy like room rent capping and co-payment to avoid any kind of financial shocks later on.