Treatments for Cancer

Before I go in depth sharing the information about how cancer is treated and how people are affected by cancer, let’s take a quick look at what has already been shared about the topic of cancer. We have learned that cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. We have learned about how to live our daily lives in healthy ways while staying mindful of the risks of getting cancer. We have also learned about how to regularly visit a doctor to received screenings and tests to help detect the prevalence of cancer in our bodies. The fourth component of cancer that I would like to share is about how cancer is treated once it has been detected as a threat in the body.

Like I mentioned before in the second post, the three main methods for treating cancer patients once they have been diagnosed are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Typically, doctors suggest surgery to be the first method of attacking and treating the cancer because most cancers are discovered when a tumor is present in the body. We have learned that tumors are an excess amount of mutated cells in the body, so when doctors carefully perform surgery to remove the tumor, then they can gather more information about whether the tumor is benign or malignant. Cancer cells tend to spread through the body if they are left untreated, so the next step after getting a tumor surgically removed is to conduct chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. The American Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.org shares what the many different types of cancer treatment are, and they explain that chemotherapy is the use of medicines or drugs to treat a cancer and radiation therapy is the use of high-energy particles or waves to destroy or damage the cancer cells in the body.

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy have been scientifically researched to be the most effective methods for treating and dealing with cancer. However, several side effects are known to impact the patients when they receive chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Because both chemotherapy and radiation therapy are treatments designed to attack the cancerous cells in a person’s body, they often times come in contact with the healthier cells in the body, so some physical side effects impact the patient. It has been known that people receiving radiation and chemotherapy tend to have their hair cells destroyed so patients often lose some hair on their head and bodies. Another physical side effect due to the influence of radiation and chemotherapy is fatigue. The American Cancer Society mentions that fatigue from cancer treatment is one of the most common and distressing side effects because it is a much more intense feeling of being tired than what we all feel on occasions. Cancer patients receiving surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy also experience nausea and vomiting as well as physical pain due to the destruction of some scar tissues in the body. More can be research about cancer’s treatments and physical side effects at http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes.

References

American Cancer Society. (2014). Treatment types. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/

American Cancer Society. (2014). Treatments and side effects. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/index?sitearea=

Screening and Testing for Cancer

So far we have looked at some common facts and information about defining cancer, how cancer affects people, how cancer is most commonly treated, and some ways to prevent the risk of getting cancer. We also know that the number of people around the world with cancer is increasing and a large amount of money, time, and resources is being put in to researching and developing advanced medicines and treatments for all types of cancers. Part of the research and resources on cancer information is being put in to promoting people to regularly get screened and tested for different types of cancer. In this blog post, I am going to talk about what we can all do to live healthy lives and take precautions toward the acquisition of cancer.

The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health provides some information about cancer screening and testing at www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/screening. The website reports that cancer can be detected before symptoms present themselves, and they define screening as the “checking for cancer (or for conditions that may lead to cancer) in people who have no symptoms.” The reason that cancer and health institutes promote that people see doctors about getting screened for cancer is because screening allows doctors to find and detect cancer before it begins to develop in order to start giving treatments to the patient before the cancer becomes a serious issue. As we know, cancer is uncontrolled growths of abnormal cells in the body, so it can be very beneficial for a person to have a doctor detect the cancer before it grows too large. In general, treatments for cancer such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are more effective when they are applied to the disease at an early stage in its development.

Different types of cancer require different types of screening and testing to detect. For example, breast cancer is one of the most common cancers found in women and it can be screened through methods of clinical breast examinations where doctors examine the breasts for lumps, by mammography which is the use of low-energy x-rays to examine the breasts, and through other imaging methods. Another very common cancer that is found in men is called prostate cancer and research is still being made on developing a strong method for screening for prostate cancer. However, men can receive specific physical examinations or blood tests from doctors that can help detect the possibility of prostate cancer. Lung cancer is another commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and it can be screened and tested through chest x-rays and by taking samples of mucus from the lungs through coughing and testing the samples.

Screening and testing researchers and the American Cancer Society advise that getting screened or tested does not necessarily mean that a cancer will be completely eliminated or the risk of death from cancer will go away, but doctors and cancer researchers find that screening and testing for cancer can greatly reduce the growth of a cancer if it is detected early. It is important that we all consider the healthy life practices to know ways to prevent the risks of getting cancer, but we also need to accept that cancer is a common disease that we should regularly check for in our bodies.

References

National Cancer Institute. (2014). Screening and testing to detect cancer. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/index

American Cancer Society. (2014). Learn about cancer. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/screening

Healthy Life Practices

In my previous post I shared some important and common information regarding what cancer is and how it can affect the lives of millions of people. It is important to know that cancer is life changing for anybody who is diagnosed as well as for the families and friends of the patients. The worldwide challenge for years has been trying to discover or invent a cure for cancer. However, as scientists, doctors, and the rest of world make large contributions to cancer research, people still need to figure out common life practices that can be turned into habits to help reduce the risks of developing cancer.

Before looking further into the common life practices for reducing the risks of cancer, I will share some information on how cancer patients are treated once they are diagnosed. The three main methods for treating cancer patients are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. As I mentioned in my first post, most cancers are discovered when a tumor is present in the body. Because tumors are an excess amount of mutated cells, it is often very beneficial for doctors to surgically remove a tumor from the body of a cancer patient. Tumors can be either benign or malignant. Benign tumors are harmless and non-spreading and malignant tumors are cancerous and invading of other cells. After a tumor has been removed or mostly reduced from the body, the patient still needs to make sure that the tumor does not spread to any other parts of the body. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to treat cancer, and radiation therapy is the use of penetrating rays or subatomic particles to treat cancer. Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy are very common methods of preventing the spread of cancerous cells through the body (Ward, 1995).

Now that we have looked at what happens to cancer patients after they have been diagnosed, let’s figure out how we can avoid and reduce the risks of getting cancer. Some of the very common cancers that can be avoided by living healthy lives are lung cancer, liver cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, and heart cancer. Lung cancer is most commonly developed by people who smoke tobacco and when people are exposed to tobacco smoke through secondhand smoke. Avoid smoking tobacco and you can strongly reduce your risk of getting lung cancer. Colon cancer and heart cancer are two common cancers that are mainly caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. People who eat balanced diets and are physically active every day are much less likely to get colon or heart cancer. The consumption of alcohol can cause damage to the cells and tissue of your liver, so by avoiding alcohol, you can heavily reduce your risk of getting liver cancer. When you are out in the sun and exposed to UV rays, your skin gets damaged and your body takes time to replace damaged tissue. Avoid the risks of getting skin cancer by applying sunscreen to your skin when you are in the sun. The American Cancer Society shares several healthy practices in its organizational website at www.cancer.org/healthy/index and the Prevent Cancer Foundation lists cancer reducing habits in its website at https://preventcancer.org/prevention/reduce-cancer-risk/ways-to-reduce-risk/.

References

American Cancer Society. (2014). Stay Healthy. Retrieved from www.cancer.org/healthy/index/

Prevent Cancer Foundation. (2014). Ways to reduce risk. Retrieved from https://preventcancer.org/prevention/reduce-cancer-risk/ways-to-reduce-risk/.

Ward, D.E. (1995). The cancer handbook: A guide for the nonspecialist. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.