That depends on the type of cancer, and what "stage" the person is in. Sometimes operating , sometimes Chemo (another name for the various antibiotics and other medications used to kill the cancer cells, which comes in pills, or liguid both taken by mouth or liquid taken by IV line, sometimes radiation, and sometimes a combo of all the above. Sometimes the client is given the choice to do one at a time and which options to go with and sometimes not. A friend of mine chose to do Iv strength chemo and radiation at the same time. Another friend chose to have the tumor removed and then lopped on top the radiation and chemo at the same time. Ive also had friends where they were not given the choice. the doctor just said right out your at stage 1, 2 whatever and this is what we are going to try first. Sometimes what type of treatment the client gets depends on what type of insurance the person has. I was diagnosed by endocscopy biopsys. Im on state insurance and so my doctor tried to pull the lets wait and see how it grows and so on before we do anything. But he didn't count on the fact that I have relatives in the medical profession and When I called him back loaded with questions and so on including the fact that if he did not want to treat me then I wanted him to send my file to another state where a relative works in a hospital with a cancer unit where I would get treatment. When he realized I was not the typical uninformed cancer patient he handed over free samples of pill form medication for me to take for three weeks. The medication made me tired and sick to my stomach. Then I had to have an endoscopy done which included biopsys to varify if the medication brought me into a remission. It did but if it hadn't they would have by endoscopy removed what they could and then I would have been given IV strength chemo and radiation at the same time.