After surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine or 5-FU can be offered if the person is sufficiently fit, after a recovery period of one to two months. In people not suitable for curative surgery, chemotherapy may be used to extend life or improve its quality. Before surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy may be used in cases that are considered to be "borderline resectable" (see Staging) in order to reduce the cancer to a level where surgery could be beneficial. In other cases neoadjuvant therapy remains controversial, because it delays surgery.

Gemcitabine was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1997, after a clinical trial reported improvements in quality of life and a 5-week improvement in median survival duration in people with advanced pancreatic cancer. This was the first chemotherapy drug approved by the FDA primarily for a nonsurvival clinical trial endpoint. Chemotherapy using gemcitabine alone was the standard for about a decade, as a number of trials testing it in combination with other drugs failed to demonstrate significantly better outcomes. However, the combination of gemcitabine with erlotinib was found to increase survival modestly, and erlotinib was licensed by the FDA for use in pancreatic cancer in 2005.

The FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy regimen using four drugs was found more effective than gemcitabine, but with substantial side effects, and is thus only suitable for people with good performance status. This is also true of protein-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel), which was licensed by the FDA in 2013 for use with gemcitabine in pancreas cancer. By the end of 2013, both FOLFIRINOX and nab-paclitaxel with gemcitabine were regarded as good choices for those able to tolerate the side-effects, and gemcitabine remained an effective option for those who were not. A head-to-head trial between the two new options is awaited, and trials investigating other variations continue. However, the changes of the last few years have only increased survival times by a few months. Clinical trials are often conducted for novel adjuvant therapies.

Palliative care is medical care which focuses on treatment of symptoms from serious illness, such as cancer, and improving quality of life. Because pancreatic adenocarcinoma is usually diagnosed after it has progressed to an advanced stage, palliative care as a treatment of symptoms is often the only treatment possible.

Palliative care focuses not on treating the underlying cancer, but on treating symptoms such as pain or nausea, and can assist in decision-making, including when or if hospice care will be beneficial. Pain can be managed with medications such as opioids or through procedural intervention, by a nerve block on the celiac plexus (CPB). This alters or, depending on the technique used, destroys the nerves that transmit pain from the abdomen. CPB is a safe and effective way to reduce the pain, which generally reduces the need to use opioid painkillers, which have significant negative side effects.

Other symptoms or complications that can be treated with palliative surgery are obstruction by the tumor of the intestines or bile ducts. For the latter, which occurs in well over half of cases, a small metal tube called a stent may be inserted by endoscope to keep the ducts draining. Palliative care can also help treat depression that often comes with the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Both surgery and advanced inoperable tumors often lead to digestive system disorders from a lack of the exocrine products of the pancreas (exocrine insufficiency). These can be treated by taking pancreatin which contains manufactured pancreatic enzymes, and is best taken with food. Difficulty in emptying the stomach (delayed gastric emptying) is common and can be a serious problem, involving hospitalization. Treatment may involve a variety of approaches, including draining the stomach by nasogastric aspiration and drugs called proton-pump inhibitors or H2 antagonists, which both reduce production of gastric acid. Medications like metoclopramide can also be used to clear stomach contents.

These lesions rarely require surgery unless they are symptomatic or the diagnosis is in question. Since these lesions do not have malignant potential, long-term observation is unnecessary. Surgery can include the removal of the head of the pancreas (a pancreaticoduodenectomy), removal of the body and tail of the pancreas (a distal pancreatectomy), or rarely removal of the entire pancreas (a total pancreatectomy). In selected cases the surgery can be performed using minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy.

Partial surgical resection is the optimal treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) when patients have sufficient hepatic function reserve. Increased risk of complications such as liver failure can occur with resection of cirrhotic (i.e. less-than-optimally functional) livers. 5-year survival rates after resection have massively improved over the last few decades and can now exceed 50%. However, recurrence rates after resection can exceed 70%, whether due to spread of the initial tumor or formation of new tumors . Liver transplantation can also be considered in cases of HCC where this form of treatment can be tolerated and the tumor fits specific criteria (such as the Milan criteria). In general, patients who are being considered for liver transplantation have multiple hepatic lesions, severe underlying liver dysfunction, or both. Less than 30-40% of individuals with HCC are eligible for surgery and transplant because the cancer is often detected at a late stage. Also, HCC can progress during the waiting time for liver transplants, which can prevent transplant due to the strict criteria.

Percutaneous ablation is the only non-surgical treatment that can offer cure. There are many forms of percutaneous ablation, which consist of either injecting chemicals into the liver (ethanol or acetic acid) or producing extremes of temperature using radio frequency ablation, microwaves, lasers or cryotherapy. Of these, radio frequency ablation has one of the best reputations in HCC, but the limitations include inability to treat tumors close to other organs and blood vessels due to heat generation and the heat sink effect, respectively. In addition, long-term of outcomes of percutaneous ablation procedures for HCC have not been well studied. In general, surgery is the preferred treatment modality when possible.

Systemic chemotherapeutics are not routinely used in HCC, although local chemotherapy may be used in a procedure known as transarterial chemoembolization. In this procedure, cytotoxic drugs such as doxorubicin or cisplatin with lipiodol are administered and the arteries supplying the liver are blocked by gelatin sponge or other particles. Because most systemic drugs have no efficacy in the treatment of HCC, research into the molecular pathways involved in the production of liver cancer produced sorafenib, a targeted therapy drug that prevents cell proliferation and blood cell growth. Sorafenib obtained FDA approval for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in November 2007. This drug provides a survival benefit for advanced HCC.

Radiotherapy is not often used in HCC because the liver is not tolerant to radiation. Although with modern technology it is possible to provide well-targeted radiation to the tumor, minimizing the dose to the rest of the liver. Dual treatments of radiotherapy plus chemoembolization, local chemotherapy, systemic chemotherapy or targeted therapy drugs may show benefit over radiotherapy alone.

Resection is an option in cholangiocarcinoma, but less than 30% of cases of cholangiocarcinoma are resectable at diagnosis. After surgery, recurrence rates are up to 60%. Liver transplant may be used where partial resection is not an option, and adjuvant chemoradiation may benefit some cases.

60% of cholangiocarcinomas form in the perihilar region and photodynamic therapy can be used to improve quality of life and survival time in these unresectable cases. Photodynamic therapy is a novel treatment that utilitizes light activated molecules to treat the tumor. The compounds are activated in the tumor region by laser light, which causes the release of toxic reactive oxygen species, killing tumor cells.

Systemic chemotherapies such as gemcitabine and cisplatin are sometimes used in inoperable cases of cholangiocarcinoma.

Radio frequency ablation, transarterial chemoembolization and internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy) all show promise in the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma.

Radiotherapy may be used in the adjuvant setting or for palliative treatment of cholangiocarcinoma.

Chemotherapy (typically the agent Mitomycin C) may be infused directly into the abdominal cavity after cytoreductive surgery to kill remaining microscopic cancerous tumors and free floating cells. The heated chemotherapy (HIPEC) is perfused throughout the abdominal cavity for an hour or two as the last step in the surgery, or ports are installed to allow circulation and/or drainage of the chemicals for one to five days after surgery, known as early postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC). EPIC may be given in multiple cycles for several months after surgery.

Systemic chemotherapy may be administered as additional or adjuvant treatment. Due to the increased availability of new chemotherapies developed for colon and colorectal cancer patients, some patients have experienced stability in tumor growth with systemic chemotherapy. Systemic chemotherapy is reserved for patients with advanced disease, recurrent disease, or disease that has spread to the lymph nodes or distant sites.

This disease may recur following surgery and chemotherapy. Periodic post operative CT scans and tumor marker laboratory tests are used to monitor the disease for any tumor regrowth.

If the tumor is operable, the first line of therapy should be surgical resection. Then, after surgical resection, adjuvant chemotherapy should be given, even in stage I disease. In patients with inoperable disease, chemotherapy alone should be given. A multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment, including surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, and radiation oncologists, is often the best approach to managing these patients.

The standard of care for mucinous adenocarcinoma with clinical condition PMP involves cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), by surgical oncologists who specialize in treating PMP. Some surgeons also apply early post-operative intraperitonial chemotherapy (EPIC), adjunct to surgical cytoreduction and HIPEC. In situations where surgery is not required immediately, patients can be monitored via CT scans, tumor marker laboratory tests, and physical symptoms, to determine when, and if, surgery is warranted. Although some surgical procedures may be rather extensive, patients can and do recover from surgery, and the majority of these patients can and do live productive lives.

In debulking, the surgeon attempts to remove as much tumor as possible. CRS or cytoreductive surgery involves surgical removal of the peritoneum and any adjacent organs which appear to have tumor seeding. Since the mucus tends to pool at the bottom of the abdominal cavity, it is common to remove the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, and parts of the large intestine. Depending upon the spread of the tumor, other organs might be removed, including but not limited to the gallbladder, spleen, and portions of the small intestine and/or stomach. For organs that cannot be removed safely (like the liver), the surgeon strips off the tumor from the surface.

Early stage disease is treated surgically. Targeted therapy is available for lung adenocarcinomas with certain mutations. Crizotinib is effective in tumors with fusions involving ALK or ROS1, whereas gefitinib, erlotinib, and afatinib are used in patients whose tumors have mutations in EGFR.

Small carcinoids (<2 cm) without features of malignancy may be treated by appendectomy if complete removal is possible. Other carcinoids and adenocarcinomas may require right hemicolectomy. Note: the term "carcinoids" is outdated: these tumors are now more accurately called "neuroendocrine tumors." For more information, see "appendiceal neuroendocrine tumors."

Pseudomyxoma peritonei treatment includes cytoreductive surgery which includes the removal of visible tumor and affected essential organs within the abdomen and pelvis. The peritoneal cavity is infused with heated chemotherapy known as HIPEC in an attempt to eradicate residual disease. The surgery may or may not be preceded or followed with intravenous chemotherapy or HIPEC.

ACC can be treated with a Whipple procedure or (depending on the location within the pancreas) with left partial resection of pancreas.

a) Surgical resection is mainstay of treatment, whenever possible. If tumor is completely removed, post-operative radiation therapy is typically not needed since acinic cell is considered a low-grade histology. Post-operative radiation therapy for acinic cell carcinoma is used if: 1) margins are positive, 2) incomplete resection, 3) tumor invades beyond gland, 4) positive lymph nodes.

b) Neutron beam radiation

c) Conventional radiation

d) Chemotherapy

A non-minimally invasive Hürthle cell carcinoma is typically treated by a total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine therapy. A Hürthle cell adenoma or a minimally invasive tumor can be treated by a thyroid lobectomy, although some surgeons will perform a total thyroidectomy to prevent the tumor from reappearing and metastasizing.

A modified radical neck dissection may be performed for clinically positive lymph nodes.

In ES-SCLC, combination chemotherapy is the standard of care, with radiotherapy added only to palliate symptoms such as dyspnea, pain from liver or bone metastases, or for treatment of brain metastases, which, in small-cell lung carcinoma, typically have a rapid, if temporary, response to whole brain radiotherapy.

Combination chemotherapy consists of a wide variety of agents, including cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine and carboplatin. Response rates are high even in extensive disease, with between 15% and 30% of subjects having a complete response to combination chemotherapy, and the vast majority having at least some objective response. Responses in ES-SCLC are often of short duration, however.

If complete response to chemotherapy occurs in a subject with SCLC, then prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) is often used in an attempt to prevent the emergence of brain metastases. Although this treatment is often effective, it can cause hair loss and fatigue. Prospective randomized trials with almost two years follow-up have not shown neurocognitive ill-effects. Meta-analyses of randomized trials confirm that PCI provides significant survival benefits.

The treatment of choice in any patient with BAC is complete surgical resection, typically via lobectomy or pneumonectomy, with concurrent ipsilateral lymphadenectomy.

Non-mucinous BACs are highly associated with classical EGFR mutations, and thus are often responsive to targeted chemotherapy with erlotinib and gefitinib. K-ras mutations are rare in nm-BAC.

Mucinous BAC, in contrast, is much more highly associated with K-ras mutations and wild-type EGFR, and are thus usually insensitive to the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In fact, there is some evidence that suggests that the administration of EGFR-pathway inhibitors to patients with K-ras mutated BACs may even be harmful.

Treatment may include the following:

- Surgery with or without radiation

- Radiotherapy

Fast neutron therapy has been used successfully to treat salivary gland tumors, and has shown to be significantly more effective than photons in studies treating unresectable salivary gland tumors.

- Chemotherapy

In cases of LS-SCLC, combination chemotherapy (often including cyclophosphamide, cisplatinum, doxorubicin, etoposide, vincristine and/or paclitaxel) is administered together with concurrent chest radiotherapy (RT).

Chest RT has been shown to improve survival in LS-SCLC.

Exceptionally high objective initial response rates (RR) of between 60% and 90% are seen in LS-SCLC using chemotherapy alone, with between 45% and 75% of individuals showing a "complete response" (CR), which is defined as the disappearance of all radiological and clinical signs of tumor. However, relapse rate remains high, and median survival is only 18 to 24 months.

Because SCLC usually metastasizes widely very early on in the natural history of the tumor, and because nearly all cases respond dramatically to chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, there has been little role for surgery in this disease since the 1970s. However, recent work suggests that in cases of small, asymptomatic, node-negative SCLC's ("very limited stage"), surgical excision may improve survival when used prior to chemotherapy ("adjuvant chemotherapy").

For treatment purposes, MCACL has been traditionally considered a non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Complete radical surgical resection is the treatment of choice.

There is virtually no data regarding new molecular targets or targeted therapy in the literature to date. Iwasaki and co-workers failed to find mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or the cellular Kirsten rat sarcoma virus oncogene "K-ras" in one reported case.

MASC is currently treated as a low-grade (i.e. Grade 1) carcinoma with an overall favorable prognosis. These cases are treated by complete surgical excision. However, the tumor does have the potential to recur locally and/or spread beyond surgically dissectible margins as well as metastasize to regional lymph nodes and distant tissues, particularly in tumors with histological features indicating a high cell growth rate potential. One study found lymph node metastasis in 5 of 34 MASC patients at initial surgery for the disease; these cases, when evidencing no further spread of disease, may be treated with radiation therapy. The treatment of cases with disease spreading beyond regional lymph nodes has been variable, ranging from simple excision to radical resections accompanied by adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, depending on the location of disease. Mean disease-free survival for MASC patients has been reported to be 92 months in one study.

The tyrosine kinase activity of NTRK3 as well as the ETV6-NTRK3 protein is inhibited by certain tyrosine kinase inhibitory drugs such as Entrectinib and LOXO-101; this offers a potential medical intervention method using these drugs to treat aggressive MASC disease. Indeed, one patient with extensive head and neck MASC disease obtained an 89% fall in tumor size when treated with entrectinib. This suppression lasted only 7 months due to the tumor's acquirement of a mutation in the "ETV6-NTRK3" gene. The newly mutated gene encoded an entrectinib-reisistant "ETV6-NTRK3" protein. Treatment of aggressive forms of MASC with NTRK3-inhibiting tyrosine kinase inhibiting drugs, perhaps with switching to another type of tyrosine kinase inhibitor drug if the tumor acquires resistance to the initial drug, is under study.STARTRK-2

Three membrane associated tyrosine kinase receptors are recurrently involved in rearrangements in adenocarcinomas: ALK, ROS1, and RET, and more than eighty other translocations have also been reported in adenocarcinomas of the lung.

Targeted therapies: ALK and ROS1 fusions proteins are both sensitive to treatment with the new ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (see the Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology,).

If ovarian cancer recurs, it is considered partially platinum-sensitive or platinum-resistant, based on the time since the last recurrence treated with platins: partially platinum-sensitive cancers recurred 6–12 months after last treatment, and platinum-resistant cancers have an interval of less than 6 months. Second-line chemotherapy can be given after the cancer becomes symptomatic, because no difference in survival is seen between treating asymptomatic (elevated CA-125) and symptomatic recurrences.

For platinum-sensitive tumors, platins are the drugs of choice for second-line chemotherapy, in combination with other cytotoxic agents. Regimens include carboplatin combined with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, gemcitabine, or paclitaxel. Carboplatin-doublet therapy can be combined with paclitaxel for increased efficacy in some cases. Another potential adjuvant therapy for platinum-sensitive recurrences is olaparib, which may improve progression-free survival but has not been shown to improve overall survival. (Olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, was approved by the US FDA for use in BRCA-associated ovarian cancer that had previously been treated with chemotherapy.) For recurrent germ cell tumors, an additional 4 cycles of BEP chemotherapy is the first-line treatment for those tho have been treated with surgery or platins.

If the tumor is determined to be platinum-resistant, vincristine, dactinomycin, and cyclophosphamide (VAC) or some combination of paclitaxel, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin may be used as a second-line therapy.

For platinum-resistant tumors, there are no high-efficacy chemotherapy options. Single-drug regimens (doxorubicin or topotecan) do not have high response rates, but single-drug regimens of topotecan, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or gemcitabine are used in some cases. Topotecan cannot be used in people with an intestinal blockage. Paclitaxel used alone is another possible regimen, or it may be combined with liposomal doxorubicin, gemcitabine, cisplatin, topotecan, etoposide, or cyclophosphamide. ( See also Palliative care below.)

Palliative care focuses on relieving symptoms and increasing or maintaining quality of life. This type of treatment's purpose is not to cure the cancer but to make the woman more comfortable while living with cancer that can not be cured. It has been recommended as part of the treatment plan for any person with advanced ovarian cancer or patients with significant symptoms. In platinum-refractory and platinum-resistant cases, other palliative chemotherapy is the main treatment.

Palliative care can entail treatment of symptoms and complications of the cancer, including pain, nausea, constipation, ascites, bowel obstruction, edema, pleural effusion, and mucositis. Especially if the cancer advances and becomes incurable, treatment of symptoms becomes one of the main goals of therapy. Palliative care can also entail helping with decision-making such as if or when hospice care is appropriate, and the preferred place for the patient at end of life care.

Bowel obstruction can be treated with palliative surgery (colostomy, ileostomy, or internal bypass) or medicine, but surgery has been shown to increase survival time. Palliative surgery may result in short bowel syndrome, enterocutaneous fistula, or re-obstruction; or may not be possible due to the extent of obstruction. Other treatments of complications can include total parenteral nutrition, a low-residue diet, palliative gastrostomy, and adequate pain control. Bowel obstruction can also be treated with octreotide when palliative surgery is not an option. Cancer can also block the ureters, which can be relieved by a nephrostomy or a ureteric stent. Ascites can be relieved by repeated paracentesis or placement of a drain to increase comfort. Pleural effusions can be treated in a similar manner, with repeated thoracentesis, pleurodesis, or placement of a drain.

Radiation therapy can be used as part of the palliative care of advanced ovarian cancer, since it can help to shrink tumors that are causing symptoms. Palliative radiotherapy typically lasts for only a few treatments, a much shorter course of therapy than non-palliative radiotherapy. It is also used for palliation of chemotherapy-resistant germ cell tumors.

When BAC recurs after surgery, the recurrences are local in about three-quarters of cases, a rate higher than other forms of NSCLC, which tends to recur distantly.

The three basic types of treatment are surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

Surgery is performed by urologists; radiation therapy is administered by radiation oncologists; and chemotherapy is the work of medical oncologists. In most patients with testicular cancer, the disease is cured readily with minimal long-term morbidity. While treatment success depends on the stage, the average survival rate after five years is around 95%, and stage 1 cancers cases, if monitored properly, have essentially a 100% survival rate.

As an adjuvant treatment, use of chemotherapy as an alternative to radiation therapy in the treatment of seminoma is increasing, because radiation therapy appears to have more significant long-term side effects (for example, internal scarring, increased risks of secondary malignancies, etc.). Two doses, or occasionally a single dose of carboplatin, typically delivered three weeks apart, is proving to be a successful adjuvant treatment, with recurrence rates in the same ranges as those of radiotherapy. The concept of carboplatin as a single-dose therapy was developed by Tim Oliver, Professor of Medical Oncology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. However, very long-term data on the efficacy of adjuvant carboplatin in this setting do not exist.

Since seminoma can recur decades after the primary tumor is removed, patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy should remain vigilant and not assume they are cured 5 years after treatment.