Cancer Treatments

Cancer Treatment That’s Personalized for You

At the Lank Cancer Center, you have access to advanced cancer treatments and expert care providers. Our cancer specialists are members of the Harvard Medical faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). They’re many of the same physicians you would see if you traveled to Boston. But you get their expertise closer to home, right here in Needham.

Here, you can receive a wide range of treatments, often offered in combination to ensure the best possible outcome. Whether you’re dealing with a common cancer or one that’s more complex, our doctors tailor treatment to your specific type of disease and your unique needs. If you require the specialized resources of an academic medical center, we can quickly and easily transfer you to BIDMC.

Treatments We Offer

Our top priority is helping you get the care you need to heal and to live your life most fully. Your treatment may include:

• Chemotherapy — The use of medication to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing and spreading.
• Hormone therapy – In some cases, hormones help cancer cells grow. Hormone therapy blocks the actions of these substances or removes them from the body. Medication and surgery may be part of this treatment.
• Radiation therapy — The use of high-energy X-rays or particles to attack cancer cells.
• Surgery — Removal of cancer from the body to determine its stage, help other treatments work better, relieve symptoms or potentially cure the disease.

Clinical Trials

Standard treatments provide known benefits in cancer care. You also may benefit from a clinical trial. Clinical trials are research studies that test new treatments. They’re based on the most up-to-date information from scientists around the world and designed with your safety in mind. New treatments may work better than existing treatments. As a participant, you may have access to them before they become widely available.

Our clinical trials are offered through the Boston campus of BIDMC. BIDMC is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) and the comprehensive cancer center at Harvard Medical School. This means we’re part of the largest cancer research group in the country, giving you access to a broad array of clinical trials.

The BIDMC cancer clinical trials office coordinates trials in connection with DF/HCC and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, among others. If your doctors think a clinical trial may be right for you, they will explain the potential benefits and risks. You alone make the decision to participate or not.