In tumors of the uterus, anus or throat, chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy is the standard treatment in many non-metastatic cancers (i.e., tumors localized, therefore curable).
This means that administering medical therapies instead of performing surgery is not only an approach to be considered when the risks of a surgical operation are high (elderly or frail patients); in some cases, it is the best and most efficacious choice.
Indeed, while these combined therapies do not reduce the possibility of cure (in comparison with surgery), they spare the organs and avoid mutilations that can seriously affect the patient’s quality of life. For example, in tumors of the throat, radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy enables the larynx to be preserved, which means that the patient will still be able to speak. This would not be the case if surgery were performed.