Treatment methods and effective medications for cancer are continuously expanding. Every year, new treatment options emerge for stage 4 cancer, improving survival rates for patients with metastatic breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and other conditions affecting both women and men. Let’s explore new treatment for stage 4 cancer.
Surgery at Stage IV
Increasingly, surgery is being performed even for stage 4 cancer. These operations help cure some patients while significantly increasing life expectancy for others.
Operations at stage IV are considerably more complex. Doctors must remove substantial volumes of tissue and then perform reconstructive interventions. Surgical intervention can last 5 or even 10 hours, such as in cytoreductive procedures to remove multiple tumor sites in the abdominal cavity. Sometimes, two surgical teams operate simultaneously, removing tumors in different anatomical zones: for example, while thoracic surgeons remove part of the lung, neurosurgeons operate on the brain.
Surgery cannot always be used immediately. Sometimes neoadjuvant therapy is required to reduce the number and size of tumors. After its completion, the feasibility of surgery is evaluated.
Many diseases can be surgically treated even at stage IV for selected patients. Examples include colon cancer, lung cancer, thyroid carcinoma, and bladder tumors. Operations reduce symptoms and ensure high survival rates.
Innovative Local Methods
Local treatment methods help control metastases or large primary tumors. At stage IV, these innovative methods may be used:
- Chemoembolization. An endovascular procedure blocking tumor-feeding vessels with drug-eluting microspheres. Previously used mainly for liver cancer, its indications are expanding to many other malignancies including lung cancer, cervical cancer, and stomach cancer.
- Radioembolization. A similar technique using radioactive substances released from microspheres after introduction into the tumor’s arterial system.
- PIPAC, pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy. Irrigation of the abdominal cavity with a cytostatic solution to reduce tumors and eliminate ascites. In some patients, tumors decrease so significantly that they become candidates for surgery.
- Innovative radiation modalities. Proton therapy, radiosurgery, and stereotactic body radiotherapy help manage brain, spine, and bone metastases.
- HIFU. Some German clinics destroy liver metastases using high-intensity focused ultrasound, a non-invasive procedure requiring no incisions.
Systemic Treatment
Advanced countries employ these new treatment options:
- Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by enabling the patient’s immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells.
- New targeted therapy drugs. These medications can block specific signals that cancer cells use to grow and divide, cut off their blood supply, or deliver toxic substances directly to cancer cells.
- Cancer vaccines. They work to stimulate the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells.
- CAR T-cell therapy. This is a groundbreaking approach where a patient’s T-cells are modified in a laboratory to better recognize and attack cancer cells.
- Stem cell transplantation. It offers a way to restore healthy blood cell production after high-dose chemotherapy.
- Antibody-drug conjugates. They combine the targeting precision of monoclonal antibodies with the cancer-killing ability of chemotherapy.
For metastatic prostate cancer, radiotargeted therapy with Lutetium-177 and Actinium-225, plus radionuclide therapy with Radium-223 are used.
People who have been treated with standard methods without good results can participate in clinical trials. These trials test new medications and procedures, many of which will be approved and become widely used cancer treatment options in the coming years.
If you want to receive new treatments abroad, use the Booking Health service. Here you can select an advanced clinic that uses medical innovations, book convenient dates, and receive assistance in organizing your trip abroad. The platform helps patients access cutting-edge treatments while ensuring all arrangements are handled professionally.
