Are you looking for a specific therapy? Search our database of clinical trials and treatments to find therapy information by country, region or subtype.
Allogenic stem cell transplant: A procedure that involves collecting stem cells from a healthy matching donor and transferring them into a patient’s body. This procedure often occurs after high-intensity chemotherapy or radiation. A matching donor is often a sibling or other relative but can also be a stranger. In many cases, donor registries are used to find the appropriate match through tissue typing.
Autologous stem cell transplant: A procedure that replaces the patients’ own blood stem cells (cells that make new blood cells). The blood stem cells are removed, and the patients are treated with high doses of chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells and the remaining blood producing cells. The patients’ own blood stem cells are then given back to them.
Chemotherapy: A treatment that uses drugs to stop cancer cells from growing, either by preventing them from dividing or by killing the cells. Chemotherapy may be given alone, or in combination with other treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, or biologic therapy. Chemotherapy may be given by injection, by mouth, by infusion or on the skin.
Chemoimmunotherapy: A treatment that combines chemotherapy with immunotherapy. Chemotherapy uses drugs to stop cancer cells from growing, either by preventing them from dividing or by killing the cells. Immunotherapy uses substances to stimulate the immune system to fight disease.
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T): A type of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own immune system to treat cancer. A key component of the immune system are T cells, which are white blood cells that can detect disease-causing pathogens in the body. CAR-T therapy involves enhancing a patient’s T cells to be more effective at detecting and destroying lymphoma. T cells are enhanced by being genetically altered to produce a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). This receptor helps T cells find lymphoma cells by detecting certain proteins on the tumour cells. Once the lymphoma cells are detected, they can then be destroyed by the immune system. CARs are synthetic receptors that reprogram immune cells for therapeutic purposes.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): Medical products or practices that are used together with (complementary) or instead of (alternative) standard medical care. CAM may include dietary supplements, vitamins, special teas and/or herbal preparations, acupuncture, magnet therapy, massage therapy, meditation, and spiritual healing. There is less known about most types of CAM compared to standard treatments, which undergo a lengthy research process to prove safety and efficacy.
Immunotherapy: A type of therapy that uses substances to stimulate the immune system to fight disease. Some immunotherapies affect the immune system in a general way, while others only target certain cells of the immune system.
Light therapy (phototherapy): A treatment that uses certain types of light including lasers, LED, fluorescent lamps, ultraviolet radiation, and infrared radiation.
Targeted therapy: A type of therapy that uses drugs or other substances to detect and attack specific types of cancer cells. This therapy causes less harm to normal cells. Some targeted therapies block the action of certain proteins, enzymes or other molecules that help cancer cells grow and spread. Other targeted therapies help the immune system kill cancer cells or kill the cancer cells themselves by delivering toxic substances directly to them.
Radioimmunotherapy: A form of radiation therapy where a monoclonal antibody is linked to a radioactive substance and injected into the body. The monoclonal antibody can bind to specific substances in the body including cancer cells. The radioactive substance gives off radiation, which may help kill cancer cells.
Radiation therapy: A type of therapy that uses high-energy radiation from x-rays, gamma rays, neutrons, protons, and other sources to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours.
Steroids: Steroids are naturally produced in the body to help control many different bodily functions, but they can also be produced in the laboratory as drugs. These drugs can be used in cancer treatment to help destroy cancer cells and make chemotherapy more effective, to reduce allergic reaction to certain drugs, to reduce nausea and symptoms such as pain caused by swelling, and to improve appetite. The most commonly used steroids in cancer treatment include hydrocortisone, dexamethasone, methylprednisolone, and prednisolone.