What to Know About Combination Therapy for Uterine Cancer

You may get more than one kind of treatment for uterine cancer. If so, it’s called combination treatment. It’s also called multimodality treatment. To treat uterine cancer, you may have more than one of these treatments:

• Surgery

• Radiation treatment

• Hormone therapy

• Chemotherapy

The order that you get treatments has a specific name. For instance, you may have radiation or hormone therapy before having surgery. These treatments may help shrink the tumor and make it easier to remove. This kind of treatment before surgery is called neoadjuvant treatment.

Or you may have other treatments after surgery. This is called adjuvant treatment. For instance, you may have radiation or hormone therapy soon after surgery. The goal is to kill any cancer cells that are left. Even if there is no sign of cancer cells, your doctor may still suggest adjuvant treatment. Having it reduces the risk that the cancer may come back or spread.