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4 treatment settings, 4 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Complete resection (parotidectomy with facial-nerve preservation where possible) and neck dissection for high-grade; post-operative radiotherapy for high-grade, close margins, perineural invasion, T3-4 or node-positive disease.
IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.
Radiation using protons, which stop inside the tumour instead of passing through, so tissue behind it gets no dose.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Definitive radiotherapy; carbon-ion or neutron therapy for adenoid cystic carcinoma where available (COSMIC, Heidelberg).
Heavier charged particles that kill even radiation-resistant tumours, available at only a handful of centres worldwide.
IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
HER2+ SDC: trastuzumab + docetaxel or trastuzumab deruxtecan; AR+ SDC: androgen deprivation (leuprorelin/bicalutamide; enzalutamide); NTRK-fused secretory carcinoma: larotrectinib or entrectinib; ACC: lenvatinib or axitinib for progressive disease, observation if indolent.
The first targeted antibody for a solid tumour (1998), which turned HER2-positive breast cancer from the worst subtype into one of the most treatable.
The first chemotherapy to extend life in prostate cancer (2004), now part of triplet therapy at first metastatic diagnosis.
Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) is the most successful ADC ever. It redefined HER2 by working in tumours with only tiny amounts of the protein, and in 2026 moved into early-stage breast cancer.
Enzalutamide is a second-generation androgen-receptor blocker that stops the receptor binding testosterone, entering the nucleus and switching on genes. It is approved at every stage of advanced prostate cancer, from rising PSA after surgery to castration-resistant disease, and fatigue, falls and memory problems are its main drawbacks.
The first drug approved for a gene fusion regardless of where the cancer started; it works in about 75% of NTRK-fusion cancers, from infant fibrosarcoma to salivary and thyroid cancers.
Entrectinib (Rozlytrek) is a pill for NTRK-fusion cancers and ROS1 lung cancer that reaches brain metastases.
An oral anti-angiogenic pill that matched sorafenib in liver cancer with higher response rates, and partners with pembrolizumab in kidney and endometrial cancer.
Axitinib is a selective VEGF-receptor pill, now given mainly with pembrolizumab or avelumab as first-line kidney cancer treatment.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 18% |
| Nausea · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 7% |
| Anaemia · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 7% |
| Fatigue · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 6% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Platinum-based chemotherapy (CAP, carboplatin-paclitaxel); pembrolizumab for TMB-H/MSI-H or PD-L1-positive; clinical trials.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Cyclophosphamide is an alkylating chemotherapy that damages DNA in dividing cells. It is part of CHOP for lymphoma, AC for breast cancer and VAC for childhood sarcomas, clears lymphocytes before CAR-T and prevents graft-versus-host disease after transplant; bladder bleeding, infertility and secondary leukaemia are its harms.
Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that crosslinks DNA; it is part of the standard pre-surgery regimen for triple-negative breast cancer.
A microtubule poison discovered in the Pacific yew tree, among the most used chemotherapies in breast, lung, and ovarian cancer.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.