Archive for July, 2009

Breast Cancer Treatment Lumpectomy

Options Breast Cancer Treatment

Treatment options for breast cancer are more advanced. Constant research has definitely greatly helped to give cancer patients a new life. Some current treatments include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy (anti-estrogen), radiation and surgery. These treatments are usually used together depending on the extent of the disease.

It can be very confusing in their power to choose the best treatment option to cure your cancer and would be best if you have some knowledge about some of these procedures.

Treatments were classified as follows:

1. Regional or local treatment - this treatment is limited to the area where the tumor. It also included the treatment of lymphatic vessels or adjacent premises.

2. Alternative treatments - yet there is no evidence that alternative treatments can cure cancer, but many people are opting for this option. This usually includes holistic therapies and the use of natural medicines.

3. Systematic treatments - these treatments focus on the prevention of metastasis or that has already occurred, treatments are aimed at eliminating the spread.

Over the years, surgery has been the most popular treatment for cancer. The doctors of today and can remove only the infected tissue and preserve those that are still intact. Mastectomy left radical mastectomy patients with deformed breasts, but today is not as sharp and is very different. Lumpectomy is a therapy that retains most of the breast that is not infected. In this method, only the tumor is removed. Treatments are given after removing and cleaning all other tissues. Radiation may prevent recurrence.

In radiation therapy, gamma rays are used to target cancer cells. This method is often used after surgery because its main function is to prevent recurrence of breast cancer.

Another method is hormone therapy. Some cancers develop when there is presence estrogen. This anti-estrogen therapy uses hormones to reduce levels of estrogen and prevent cancer cells from developing. Tamoxifen is the drug most widely used anti-estrogen in therapy. There are also aromatase inhibitors can be used in therapy.

Chemotherapy is another method to treat breast cancer. Cancer varies from one individual to another. This method is given to patients with high quality, large tumor size and lymph nodes affected. However, chemotherapy is usually given along with surgery, radiotherapy and surgery.

These are the available treatment options breast cancer patients. These conventional treatments are often long and costly. Some treatments require multiple sessions and what can be very tiring and stressful. When undergo a series of treatments, the individual may also undergo psychological therapy that may have a better perspective on life.

cancer patients Breast often find it difficult to cope with their situation because it is a terrible disease. In fact, there have been many cases of breast cancer deaths.

To choose the best breast options cancer treatment, you have to know the differences between these treatments and the risks involved. Treatments to work effectively when the cancer is detected immediately, but the later stages can still be cured, although the survival rate is only 20%. When performing a thorough examination, breast cancer can be detected early, Thereafter, the treatment at this time can be used to get rid of cancer cells.

About the Author

Charlene J. Nuble is a healthcare professional who loves writing about women's issues, parenting and other health related stuffs. Click on the link to learn more about Breast Cancer Treatment Options...

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Cancer Treatment and Prevention

Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk tends to increase with age. There are many types of cancer. Most cancers are named for where they start. For example, lung cancer starts in the lung, and breast cancer starts in the breast. The spread of cancer from one part of the body to another is called metastasis. Severity of symptoms depends on the site and character of the malignancy and whether there is metastasis.

Cancer is caused by damage to DNA, resulting in mutations to genes that encode for proteins controlling cell division. Many mutation events may be required to transform a normal cell into a malignant cell. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery.. These mutations can be caused by radiation, chemicals or physical agents that cause cancer, which are called carcinogens, or by certain viruses that can insert their DNA into the human genome. Mutations occur spontaneously, and may be passed down from one cell generation to the next as a result of mutations within germ lines. However, some carcinogens also appear to work through non-mutagenic pathways that affect the level of transcription of certain genes without causing genetic mutation.

Treatment of Cancer

Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy or other methods. Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs ("anticancer drugs") that can destroy cancer cells. It interferes with cell division in various possible ways, e.g. with the duplication of DNA or the separation of newly formed chromosomes. Most forms of chemotherapy target all rapidly dividing cells and are not specific for cancer cells. Hence, chemotherapy has the potential to harm healthy tissue, especially those tissues that have a high replacement rate (e.g. intestinal lining). These cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy. Treatment of some leukaemias and lymphomas requires the use of high-dose chemotherapy, and total body irradiation (TBI). This treatment ablates the bone marrow, and hence the body's ability to recover and repopulate the blood.

Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy, X-ray therapy, or irradiation) is the use of ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy can be administered externally via external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or internally via brachytherapy. The effects of radiation therapy are localised and confined to the region being treated. Radiation. Hormone-sensitive tumors include certain types of breast and prostate cancers. Removing or blocking estrogen or testosterone is often an important additional treatment. Pain medication, such as morphine and oxycodone, and antiemetics, drugs to suppress nausea and vomiting, are very commonly used in patients with cancer-related symptoms. Cancers can be cured if entirely removed by surgery, but this is not always possible. When the cancer has metastasized to other sites in the body prior to surgery, complete surgical excision is usually impossible.

Prevention of Cancer

Cancer prevention is defined as active measures to decrease the incidence of cancer. Much of the promise for cancer prevention comes from observational epidemiologic studies that show associations between modifiable life style factors or environmental exposures and specific cancers. Use of exogenous hormones, exposure to ionizing radiation and ultraviolet radiation, certain occupational and chemical exposures, and infectious agents. Alcohol consumption, Smoking (although 20% of women with lung cancer have never smoked, versus 10% of men. Cancer however, compared with tobacco exposure, the magnitude of effect is modest or small and the strength of evidence is often weaker. Do not take the Alcohol and No Smoking.

About the Author

Juliet Cohen writes articles for health doctor. She also writes articles for depression treatment and cancer treatment.

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Colon Cancer Stage 3 Life Expectancy

Some disturbance occurs which disrupts the balance of cells of different kinds in the body. The cells seem to return to their primitive state or to the infantile or fetal type.Colon Cancer Stage 3 Life Expectancy The body of a baby before birth grows much faster than does a cancer, but the growth of the cells in the developing child is controlled or regulated by an internal mechanism.

Many substances have the ability to stimulate the growth of cells. Pure chemicals, glandular substances, or physical forces like heat or pressure may stimulate cell growth. The changes that initiate the sudden, rapid growth of cancer cells and the traveling of these cells into other parts of the body involve many different factors related to the chemistry of the body, its nutrition, damage to tissues by inflammation and infection, and modifications of growth brought about by glandular action. A variety of chemical products, particularly those related to tar, are known to be able to stimulate the growth of cancer. In tropical areas white people who do not protect themselves against the sun develop cancer in amounts out of all proportion to that which occurs among the native people with darker skins. To a large extent farmers also, as well as sailors, suffer from cancers of the skin.

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Irritation is still a basic factor in the production of cancer. Continuous, rubbing, irritation by irregular or jagged teeth, and heat from a pipe carried always in one comer of the mouth are known to be types of irritation that can excite the growth of cancer.

Suspicious Symptoms

Certain symptoms are suspicious and should be given serious consideration. Not long ago a state cancer organization asked 158 people with cancer why they had delayed so long in seeking medical attention with their problem. One half of them said that they had not taken it seriously. Two had hesitated because they were afraid of cancer and two because they were afraid of doctors. Ten per cent said that they just had not bothered about it, and another 10 per cent were afraid that it would cost them something to see the doctor. This information is enlightening, since we know that hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved today if people would just bring their symptoms soon enough to the attention of competent physicians and surgeons.

Whenever a lump appears underneath the surface of the body and does not go away the symptom must be considered suspicious. Whenever there is bleeding or a discharge, from any portion of the body, that is not easily explainable the symptom is a warning sign. Whenever a sore or rubbed area in the body does not heal promptly, investigation should be made immediately. Cancers that may be seen and felt easily are those on the skin, in the mouth, or in the breast. Women are much less likely to suffer cancers of the skin than are men, because women are much more careful about the appearance of the surface of the body. Men suffer more cancers of the mouth than do women. Cancers of the breast, however, are far more frequent in women than in men. The most frequent cancers which cannot be seen or felt but which warn of their presence by unusual symptoms such as bleeding and discharges are cancers of the urinary bladder, the kidney, or the organs concerned in childbirth.

Pain is a relatively late symptom in cancer. Pain is likely to cause people to seek medical attention promptly; but other symptoms usually come before pain. Cancers which cannot be seen and which do not give any external signs of their presence are those of the stomach, the bowels, or the lungs. Hoarseness that persists more than a short time, and particularly hoarseness that does not go away after the voice has been rested, may be considered a danger signal. Many a man with serious symptoms affecting his stomach satisfies himself with a dose of baking soda. This is like pouring water on a fire bell when the fire is burning in the house.

Diagnostic Tests

Investigators are using several diagnostic tests for cancer, as the Wassermann test is used in syphilis. If it can be found that these changes in the serum of the blood come early in the disease and can be quickly detected, an intensive search can be made for the manifestations of cancer in the body.

Research

Certain substances of the nature of folic acid have been found capable of stimulating the growth of body cells. Cancer, too, is an excessively rapid overgrowth of body cells. Other substances have been found which act against folic acid in this activity. The scientists are determining the value of anti-folic compounds as a treatment of such conditions as acute leukemia in which there is excessive growth of the white cells of the blood.

Outstanding among results of medical research in 1949 was the perfection of ACTH, the adrenocorticotropic hormone, and its use against a variety of conditions, including certain forms of overgrowth of cells in the body. This substance, derived from the pituitary gland, has the power to stimulate the cortex, or outer portion of the adrenal gland to produce and put into the blood certain hormones. Among the most significant of these is cortisone. At present, there is little reason to think that these hormones will have a specific curative effect in cancer. Cell chemistry is, however, fundamentally involved in the production of cancer. For instance, one investigator painted the skin of baby chicks with a chemical called methylcholanthrene, which acts as an irritant and which is known to be a carcinogenic agent. Chicks are particularly resistant to this substance. The skin did not respond except with the appearance of a few warts. Then the chicks were injected with considerable doses of the male sex hormone, testosterone, and cancers appeared, some of which were large. This shows the effects of hormones on cell growth.

Previously, Dr. Huggins and his associates at the University of Chicago had shown that estrogenic hormones, the female sex hormone, f. can be of help in controlling the prostate gland cancers of men, and other investigators have shown that testosterone definitely modifies activities of breast cancers in women.

Many different chemical substances have been tested for their effects, on the human body, with particular relationship to their ability to prevent the excessive growth of cells. When it was found that the constituents of the war gases known as nitrogen mustards could lessen the production of white blood cells, a series of studies were made involving 100 different nitrogen mustard compounds. Four, which seemed to be best, were eventually tested against human leukemia and also against Hodgkin's disease, which is a form of cancer of the lymph glands. The effects were interesting but did not prove of sufficient value to be adopted as a common treatment. Out of such studies came also trial of the antifolic acid compounds. These studies warranted the conclusion that the substances that antagonize folic acid have a definitely beneficial, although temporary, effect on cases of acute leukemia. This is not a specific cure for the disease, but is so definitely a specific action that it represents a real advance in the treatment of acute leukemia. Urethane is one of several chemical compounds that have seemed to offer some usefulness against leukemia.

Dr. Maude Slye at the University of Chicago contributed greatly to our knowledge of heredity in cancer. By growing thousands and thousands of mice in her laboratories she was able to show that there is somewhat of an hereditary element in cancer or the tendency of cells f to become cancerous. The Committee on Growth of the National Research Council has found evidence that this hereditary pattern can be influenced to some extent by chemical agents.

In 1956 several new substances are being tested in the chemical attack on cancer. Domagk who discovered the sulfonamides has a drug called 107--ethylene-imino-quinone which stops growth of cancer cells without injuring normal cells. An antibiotic called Sanamycin acts similarly. In the fight against cancer one of our most potent weapons is education of the public. Since cancer comes on insidiously and since it is controllable in great numbers of cases in its earliest stages, people have to be told.again and again about the early signs and symptoms of cancer. How can you help yourself against cancer? First, resolve to have an annual physical examination, which is a fine insurance not only against cancer but various insidious degenerative diseases. Look out for the cancer danger signals which should send you for an immediate investigation:

1. Any sore that does not heal.
2. A lump or thickening in the breast or elsewhere.
3. Unusual bleeding or discharge.
4. Any sudden change in a wart or mole.
5. Persistent indigestion or difficulty in swallowing.
6. Persistent hoarseness or cough.
7. Any change in normal bowel habits.

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