Cancer: Interprofessional Care and Complications

Cancer: Interprofessional Care and Complications

Cancer treatment goals

• Goals
  • Cure therapy
    • Surgery alone or periods of adjunctive systemic therapy
    • Timeframe to “cure” may differ according to the tumor and its characteristics
  • Control therapy
    • Initial course and maintenance therapy
  • Palliation therapy
    • Palliation goal
      • Relief or control of symptoms
      • Maintain quality of life
    • Palliative care and treatment are not mutually exclusive and can take concurrently

Personalized cancer medicine

• Genetic information is used to customize decisions about
  • Prevention
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
• Targeted therapy
  • Aims at a cancer’s specific genes or proteins that contribute to cancer growth and survival
  • Biopsy can help determine whether a tumor has the specific target
• Pharmacogenomics
  • Study of genomic variation associated with drug responses
• Not all types of cancer have personalized treatment options
  • Costly
  • Time-consuming
  • Not covered by insurance