Advanced cancer means that the tumor has spread throughout the body. In most cases, patients cannot be cured. At the same time, innovative cancer treatments make it possible to control the pathology for a very long time, for many years. You can undergo stage 4 cancer treatment in Germany and benefit from all the advantages of modern medicine.
Principles of Advanced Cancer Treatment
In advanced stages, cancer treatment is most often systemic. This means that the drugs and procedures used are aimed at destroying cancer cells throughout the body rather than removing a single tumor, as is done in the early stages. Systemic treatments shrink all tumors at once and also reduce the risk of further disease spreading.
Local treatments can also be used in the advanced stages, but they are considered palliative rather than radical. These treatments can no longer cure cancer, but they can help destroy large tumor foci, increase a person’s life expectancy, improve quality of life, and prevent or eliminate complications.
Advanced Cancer Stages and Therapies
The best cancer hospitals in the world use advanced treatment techniques that can allow for significant regression of tumor foci and sometimes even the complete disappearance of all tumors. A few examples of methods that can be used at advanced stages:
Cytoreductive Surgery and HIPEC
It is used for colon cancer and some other tumors of abdominal organs. First, the doctor performs surgery to remove all tumor sites. The abdomen is then flushed with a heated solution of chemo drugs to kill small clusters of tumor cells that cannot be detected visually. This results in a long, multi-year remission.
PSMA Therapy with Lutetium-177
It is used to treat prostate cancer. The radiopharmaceutical is injected intravenously. Because of the ligand, it accumulates in cancer cells that are rich in prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). The radiation selectively destroys tumors with little or no damage to healthy tissues.
Cancer Vaccines
Dendritic cell vaccines, which train the human immune system to fight malignant tumors, are already being used in cancer care in Germany. The vaccine is made individually for each patient, using his immune cells. After administration of the vaccine, the immune response is activated, resulting in tumor shrinkage.
CAR T-cell Therapy
Immune cells are taken from a person, and their genotype is altered by adding receptors capable of attaching to tumor cells. This innovative technique can treat even severe and aggressive forms of leukemia and lymphoma.
Combined Surgery
They are used for cancers with oligometastases (small numbers of metastases), for example, lung or colon cancer. While one surgical team removes the primary tumor, another team removes tumors in the liver, lung, brain, or other areas affected by metastases.
Chemoembolization
This is a minimally invasive procedure performed from inside the blood vessels through an incision in the leg or arm. Tiny beads containing chemotherapeutic drugs are injected into the vessels that feed the tumor.
This causes the tumor to die from lack of blood supply, and the prolonged release of the chemo drugs from the microspheres provides an additional effect. They are delivered directly to the tumor, providing a more powerful effect than systemic chemotherapy.
Personalized Drug Therapy
Genetic tests allow doctors to determine the optimal scheme of drug therapy for cancer in the advanced stages. Doctors use targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy, sometimes in combination with hormone therapy, radiotherapy, and anti-angiogenic therapy.
Personalized treatment regimens aimed at suppressing tumor growth provide good results for many years. All these and many more methods are used in German cancer care. If you need treatment abroad, contact Booking Health specialists. We will select a clinic for you and organize your trip.
On our website, you can find out prices, make appointments, get information about hospitals and doctors, and read reviews and success stories. When you schedule treatment through Booking Health, the cost of medical services will be lower, as no additional fees for foreign patients are charged.
