Overview
A new cancer diagnosis can come as a shock, often leaving you feeling overwhelmed or unsure of what comes next. Taking time to learn about your condition can help you regain a sense of control. It’s important to remember that most cancers do not require immediate emergency treatment. You have the time you need to understand your diagnosis, explore treatment options, ask questions, and seek a second opinion if you choose.
Personalized Cancer Care
Cancer treatment isn’t the same for everyone anymore. Even people with the same type of cancer can have very different experiences. That’s because cancers – and people – are unique. Researchers now understand that certain features of your cancer cells, and even your own biology, can affect how well treatments work.
While this makes cancer care more personalized, it also means your care team can choose treatments that are more likely to help you. Some tests can show how likely the cancer is to come back, how it might respond to certain medicines, or whether it has specific targets that newer drugs can attack.
These advances are helping doctors tailor care so each person gets the treatment that’s right for them.
What to Ask Your Doctor
This page will help you know what to ask and how to make the most of your conversations with your care team. You are not alone – we’re here to help.
Radiology & Imaging
Advanced imaging plays a critical role in diagnosing cancer, guiding treatment decisions, and monitoring progress.
Chemotherapy
Being informed about chemotherapy and its potential side effects can help you to proactively manage your own care and optimize your treatment and outcome.
List of Cancer Types
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with cancer, you will have many questions. View information on the stages of different types of cancer.
Your Visit
Starting care at Illinois CancerCare can feel overwhelming, but we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Here is a simple overview to help you feel prepared.
Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life at every stage, helping manage symptoms, reduce stress, and support both patients and families along the way.
Other Cancer Treatments
Targeted Therapy
Traditional chemotherapy attacks fast growing cells, which means it can harm healthy cells along with cancer cells – leading to more side effects.
Targeted therapy works differently. These drugs are designed to identify and attack specific cancer cells while causing less damage to normal cells. Targeted therapy may be used on its own or combined with chemotherapy. When used together, it can help chemotherapy work more effectively against cancer cells.
Targeted therapies may be given through an IV infusion or taken as a pill.
Biological Therapy
Biological therapy—also called immunotherapy, immunologic therapy, or biotherapy—helps the body’s own immune system fight cancer. These treatments strengthen or guide the immune response so it can better recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Types of biological therapy include interferons, interleukins, monoclonal antibodies, colony stimulating factors (cytokines), and vaccines.
Hormonal Therapy
Some cancers, such as breast and prostate cancers, grow in response to hormones the body naturally produces. Hormonal therapy works by blocking these hormones or changing how they behave, helping slow or stop the growth of cancer cells.
This can be done with medications or, in some cases, by removing organs that produce hormones (such as the ovaries or testes). Like chemotherapy, hormonal therapy is a systemic treatment, meaning it can reach cancer cells throughout the body.