The basic building blocks of modern conventional therapeutic procedures in oncology today are improved surgical techniques, a variety of chemotherapeutic drugs (classical cytostatics and modern "multi-kinase inhibitors"), hormone or anti-hormone therapies, and a wide range of radiation procedures. It is undisputed that these can play an important role in treatment if used judiciously. In individual cases, they can even make a decisive contribution to the healing process in certain cancers.
However, in some patients, especially those who have already reached a metastasized stage, the overly schematic use of these methods, which directly destroy cells or inhibit the growth and division of cells, does not lead to the desired result over time. Rather, the quality of life is increasingly compromised by accumulating side effects. And since the need for parallel supportive concomitant therapies is often not yet seen, these patients still too often experience severe discomfort as a result of purely conventional treatment.
Thus, in these so-called "palliative situations", we at the Hufeland Clinic have repeatedly been able to experience that the desired gain in time can often also be achieved by using, for example, chemotherapy in a lower dosage.
The advantages of this method are on the one hand a much better tolerability for the patient and thus a gain in quality of life, and on the other hand the "low-dose" administration of chemotherapeutic agents opens up the possibility of simultaneously stabilizing and even stimulating the immune system, which can increase the chances of self-healing again. Wherever possible and sensible, we therefore strive in our clinic to take the gentlest possible route in directly influencing tumors.