Understanding The Treatment Options For Adrenal Cancer
When you go to the doctor and find out that you have adrenal cancer, you may find yourself unsure of how to react or proceed. Because the adrenal glands are a part of the body that most people do not think about on a daily basis, it can be difficult to consider the impact that these two small glands can have on your overall health. However, once you are able to wrap your mind around your diagnosis, the next step will be to determine a course of treatment and get started. Before you meet with your endocrinologist and doctor of oncology, get to know some of the treatment options available for your adrenal cancer.
Surgery
If your adrenal gland tumor is small enough, or you only show signs of tumors on one of your two adrenal glands, then surgery may be a viable treatment option for your adrenal cancer. Surgery can be performed with two purposes in mind. The first is to remove the tumor itself as well as a small border of seemingly healthy tissue around the tumor to ensure that the cancerous cells are all removed from the body.
The other surgical option is to remove the affected adrenal gland entirely if the tumor is too big to remove and leave any viable gland tissue behind. However, this would not be an option if both adrenal glands were equally affected by tumors. In this case, surgery would likely not be a treatment option at all unless your medical team was able to shrink the tumors through other treatments first.
Hormone Therapy
The adrenal glands, as a part of the endocrine system, are responsible for releasing and controlling the levels of various hormones throughout the body. Part of the trouble with adrenal cancer is the lack of hormone balance throughout the body that has the dual effect of making you feel unwell and creating an environment that is ideal for tumor growth.
To help remedy this and to slow or stop the growth of tumor cells in your body, your doctors may recommend hormone therapy using prescription drugs to get your internal body chemistry back in balance. This type of treatment can also be used after surgery when your adrenal glands may struggle to function as they heal, or your one remaining gland struggles to do the work of two healthy glands.
Now that you know two of the primary treatment options for adrenal cancer, you can be better prepared for your meetings with your medical team. Of course, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are also common options for adrenal cancer (just like for most other cancers), and new drugs and treatments are being regularly researched and developed that may help you if other treatments are unsuccessful. For more information, contact oncologists {like those at Sturdy Memorial Hospital}
Share