Which treatments are used as adjuvant therapies?

Types of cancer treatment used as adjuvant therapy include:

• Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy treats cancer with strong medicines. Many chemotherapy medicines exist. Most are given through a vein. Some come in pill form.
• Hormone therapy. Some types of cancer are fueled by the body's hormones. Examples include breast cancer and prostate cancer. Hormone therapy treatments use medicines to remove those hormones from the body or block their effects. This may help stop the cancer cells from growing.
• Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy treats cancer with powerful energy beams. The most common kind of radiation therapy is external beam radiation. During this kind of radiation therapy, you lie on a table while a machine moves around you. The machine directs radiation to precise points on your body. Another type of radiation is called brachytherapy. For this, a sealed radiation source is placed inside your body next to the area that needs treatment.
• Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy for cancer is a treatment with medicine that works with the body's immune system to kill cancer cells. The immune system fights off diseases by attacking germs and other cells that shouldn't be in the body. Cancer cells survive by hiding from the immune system. Immunotherapy helps the immune system cells find and kill the cancer cells.
• Targeted therapy. Targeted therapy for cancer is a treatment that uses medicines that attack specific chemicals in cancer cells. By blocking these chemicals, targeted treatments can cause the cancer cells to die.