onkommon.com
Treatment library · free patient resource
56 treatments, explained honestly
What each treatment is, when it is used, how the decision is made, where it is delivered, and what to ask your own doctor. Including the options that are oversold, and the option to do nothing yet.
Not this website. Which treatment fits depends on your pathology, your stage, your organ function, your other health and what you want from treatment, and that decision belongs at a tumour board with your records in front of it. These pages exist so you can follow the conversation, not replace it.
Systemic therapy 18
Chemotherapy
Drug treatment that acts on rapidly dividing cells throughout the body.
Immunotherapy
Treatment that works on the immune system rather than directly on the tumour.
Targeted therapy
Medicines matched to a specific alteration found in your tumour.
Hormone therapy
Treatment that removes or blocks the hormones some cancers depend on.
Antibody-drug conjugates
A targeting antibody carrying a chemotherapy payload directly to the cell.
Bispecific antibodies
One molecule that holds an immune cell and a tumour cell together.
Referral & opinion onlyRadioligand therapy
A targeting molecule carrying a radioactive payload to cells that express a specific receptor.
Referral & opinion onlyTumour treating fields
Low-intensity alternating electric fields delivered through scalp or torso arrays.
Referral & opinion onlyAnti-angiogenic therapy
Medicines that attack the blood supply a tumour builds for itself.
Maintenance therapy
Lower-intensity treatment continued after the main course, to hold a response.
Bone-modifying therapy
Protecting bone that cancer or its treatment has weakened.
Blood support & growth factors
Keeping counts safe enough for treatment to continue on schedule.
Radioiodine (I-131) therapy
A drink or capsule that thyroid cancer cells absorb and other tissues largely ignore.
Delivered at a partner unitCNS-directed therapy
Getting treatment past the blood-brain barrier, by route, by drug choice, or by radiation.
Delivered at a partner unitEpigenetic & differentiation therapy
Changing how a cancer cell reads its own instructions, rather than killing it outright.
Delivered at a partner unitAdjuvant therapy
Treatment after surgery aimed at cells nobody can see, and the hardest benefit to explain.
Neoadjuvant therapy
Treatment before surgery, to shrink the tumour, and to see how it behaves.
Second-line and beyond
What happens when the first treatment stops working, and how to know when to stop.
Local therapy 15
Radiotherapy
Targeted radiation to a defined area, planned in millimetres.
Opinion here · delivered at a partner centreInterventional oncology
Image-guided treatment through a needle or a catheter, without an open operation.
Opinion here · delivered at a partner centreStereotactic radiosurgery & SBRT
Very high dose radiation to a very small volume, in one to five sittings.
Opinion here · delivered at a partner centreBrachytherapy
Radiation delivered from inside the body, placed directly at the target.
Opinion here · delivered at a partner centreProton & heavy-ion therapy
Particle radiation that stops at a chosen depth instead of passing through.
Referral & opinion onlyCytoreductive surgery & HIPEC
Extensive surgery followed by heated chemotherapy washed through the abdomen.
Referral & opinion onlyPalliative radiotherapy
A short course, sometimes a single sitting, aimed at a symptom rather than the disease.
Opinion here · delivered at a partner centreInterventional pain procedures
Nerve blocks and neurolysis, where medicines alone are not enough.
Referral & opinion onlyPhotodynamic therapy
A light-activated drug that only acts where the light is shone.
Referral & opinion onlyElectrochemotherapy
Brief electrical pulses that let chemotherapy enter cells it otherwise could not.
Referral & opinion onlyThermal ablation (RFA, microwave, cryo)
Destroying a small tumour through a needle, using heat or cold, without an operation.
Delivered at a partner unitLiver-directed therapy (TACE & TARE)
Treating liver tumours through their own blood supply, leaving the rest of the liver alone.
Delivered at a partner unitRegional hyperthermia
Warming a tumour to make radiation or chemotherapy work better, with honest limits about the evidence.
Referral & opinion onlyReconstructive & restorative surgery
Rebuilding what cancer surgery removes, planned before the first operation, not after it.
Delivered at a partner unitOligometastatic treatment
A small number of metastases treated with intent, not written off as incurable.
Cellular therapy 4
CAR-T cell therapy
Your own immune cells, collected, re-engineered and returned.
Referral & opinion onlyDendritic cell & other cellular therapies
An investigational field, and one where patients are frequently sold things that do not work.
Referral & opinion onlyStem cell & bone marrow transplant
High-dose treatment followed by restoration of the blood-forming system.
Referral & opinion onlyOncolytic virus therapy
An engineered virus injected into a tumour, licensed narrowly, researched widely.
Referral & opinion onlyDelivery 3
Day care & infusion
Treatment delivered in a chair, close to home, under a written protocol.
Delivered at a partner unitHome care & home infusion
Some of what happens in a hospital bed does not need a hospital bed.
Delivered at a partner unitVascular access & ports
A small procedure that decides how tolerable the next six months are.
Delivered at a partner unitDecision 5
Conservative management & active surveillance
Sometimes the right decision is to watch carefully and treat nothing yet.
Best supportive care
A plan with its own targets, symptom control, function, and time at home.
Integrative & complementary care
An honest conversation about everything else you are being told to take.
Prehabilitation
Getting fitter before treatment, in the weeks that are usually wasted waiting.
Geriatric oncology assessment
Age is not a number that decides treatment. Function is.
Access 3
Clinical trials
Most Indian patients never learn a trial exists, because nobody is looking.
Biosimilars & access substitution
The same biological medicine at a fraction of the price, and the honest limits of that swap.
Scheme & funding access
Ayushman Bharat, CGHS, ESI, state schemes, employer cover and company access programmes, worked, not mentioned.
Supportive 8
Dental care in cancer treatment
A mandatory step in head-and-neck treatment, and the one most often skipped.
Fertility preservation
A decision with a deadline, and one that is routinely never raised at all.
Delivered at a partner unitLymphoedema care
A long-term consequence of good cancer treatment, and one that responds well to unglamorous work.
Clinical nutrition support
Feeding a patient properly is a treatment, and losing weight during treatment is not inevitable.
Immune-related toxicity management
Immunotherapy side effects behave nothing like chemotherapy's, and are missed constantly.
Febrile neutropenia & infection care
The complication most likely to kill someone whose cancer was curable.
Dental clearance before treatment
A dental appointment with a deadline, and one that is missed constantly.
Radiation side-effect care
Managed well, radiation is finished on schedule. Managed badly, it is abandoned in week four.
Where treatment actually happens
Surgery at a partner hospital. Radiation at a partner centre. Infusions near your home where that is clinically reasonable.
Each provider invoices you directly, and we negotiate the rate with them on your behalf before you commit.
Every recommendation on this page is free of our own interest
The treatment you are advised to have is chosen on the evidence and on your situation, and nothing else. Each procedure happens at a partner facility you choose, invoiced by them at their published rates, never blended into a bill of ours.
