Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancers and tumors. When a physician refers to themselves as an oncologist, it means that they deal primarily with cancer patients and have done extra training or study to specialize in helping people with the disease.
Formally, oncology is the practice of medicine involved in researching, identifying, diagnosing, and treating cancer. Medical doctors who specialize in oncology, such as those at Cochise Oncology, are called oncologists.
Oncology is a broad discipline that comprises multiple categories, each of which is a specialist area.
Radiation oncology is a field of oncology that involves the use of electromagnetic radiation to target and destroy tumors.
TomoTherapy®, for instance, is a revolutionary radiation therapy that combines CT scanning with targeted beams of radiation. The patient lies on a bench and goes through a machine that scans their body to identify the location of tumors. Oncologists then use this information to selectively target tumors with radiation while leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed.
Varian Adaptive Radiation is another type of treatment that works in a similar way to TomoTherapy®. Focused beams of radiation damage the DNA in cancer cells, causing them to malfunction, giving the immune system an opportunity to clear them away.
Xoft® is a similar kind of treatment that uses an applicator to direct precision-controlled x-rays to cancer sites and eliminate them. Incredibly, the treatment doesn’t usually require downtime or anesthetics.
Medical oncology is a catch-all term that refers to any branch of cancer treatment that involves the use of external agents, such as drugs or infusions to treat the disease.
Cochise Oncology, for instance, offers chemotherapy. During this treatment, oncologists introduce chemicals to the body that kill cancer cells.
Medical oncology also includes immunotherapy (sometimes called immuno-oncology) that uses medications designed to enhance the body’s immune response, allowing it to better fight cancer.
Finally, Cochise Oncology also offers infusion services which involve providing the body with nutrients and fluids that it needs via a catheter or needle.
The role of oncologists is to first diagnose cancer and then recommend treatment based on their findings. To this end, physicians at Cochise Oncology will invite patients for PET scanning, ultrasounds, MRI and CT scanning, endoscopy, or biopsy – techniques that allow them to characterize the nature of the disease.
Oncologists will then determine a suitable course of treatment for patients, depending on the “stage” of the disease, with stage I being the earliest, and stage IV being the latest.
In most cases, oncologists will recommend chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of both. In some cases, advanced treatments such as monoclonal antibody treatment, immunotherapies, or vaccines might be available. Palliative oncologists use therapies to manage the disease instead of trying to eliminate it to provide patients with as much comfort as possible.
Are you ready to learn more about oncology? Reach out to Cochise Oncology at (520) 803-6644 or fill out the consultation form on this page. We look forward to meeting you!
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