Management
Treatment and survival is determined, to a great extent, by whether or not a cancer remains localized or spreads to other locations in the body. If the cancer metastasizes to other tissues or organs, it usually dramatically decreases a patient's likelihood of survival (i.e. the "prognosis"). However, there are some cancers - such as some forms of leukemia, a cancer of the blood, or malignancies in the brain - that can kill without spreading at all.
Once a cancer has metastasized, it may still be treated with radiosurgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy, hormone therapy, surgery, or a combination of these interventions ("multimodal therapy"). The choice of treatment depends on a large number of factors, including the type of primary cancer, the size and location of the metastases, the patient's age and general health, and the types of treatments used previously, among others. In patients diagnosed with CUP, it is often still possible to treat the disease even when the primary tumor cannot be located.
The treatment options currently available are rarely able to cure metastatic cancer, though some tumors, such as testicular cancer and thyroid cancer, are usually still curable.
Read more about this topic: Metastasis
Famous quotes containing the word management:
“The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“People have described me as a “management bishop” but I say to my critics, “Jesus was a management expert too.””
—George Carey (b. 1935)
“This we take it is the grand characteristic of our age. By our skill in Mechanism, it has come to pass, that in the management of external things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure moral nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilised ages.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)