Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Cancer Case - Treatment of Cancer (Part III)

There are four methods widely used for cancer treatment
They are:
1) Surgery
2) Radiation Treatment
3) Chemotherapy
4) Immunotherapy

1) Surgery

Surgery is used for cancer treatment for the following purpose

Preventive (prophylactic) Surgery
Preventive surgery is done to remove body tissue that is not malignant (cancerous) but is likely to become malignant

Diagnostic Surgery
This type of surgery is used to get a tissue sample to tell whether or not cancer is present or to tell what type of cancer it is.

Staging Surgery
Staging surgery is done to find out how much cancer there is and how far it has spread.

Curative Surgery
Curative surgery is done when a tumor appears to be confined to one area and it is likely that all of the tumor can be removed

Debulking (cytoreductive) Surgery
Surgery is done to debulk a tumor when removing the entire tumor would cause too much damage to an organ or near-by tissues

Palliative Surgery
This type of surgery is used to treat complications of advanced cancer. It is not intended to cure the cancer.

Supportive Surgery
Supportive surgery is used to help with other types of treatment.

Restorative (reconstructive) Surgery
This type of surgery is used to restore a person’s appearance or the function of an organ or body part after primary surgery.

2)Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy attacks cancer cells that are dividing, but it can also affect dividing cells of normal tissues. The damage to normal cells is what causes side effects. Each time radiation therapy is given it involves a balance between destroying the cancer cells and sparing the normal cells.
Radiation used for cancer treatment is called ionizing radiation because it forms ions in the cells of the tissues it passes through, as it dislodges electrons from atoms. (Ions are atoms that have acquired an electric charge through the gain or loss of an electron.) This can kill cells or change genes.
Other forms of radiation, such as radio waves, microwaves, and light waves are called non-ionizing. They don’t have as much energy and are not able to ionize cells.
Ionizing radiation can be sorted into 2 major types:
photons (x-rays and gamma rays), which are most widely used
particle radiation (electrons, protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and beta particles)

3) Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, or "chemo" for short, most often means taking medicines, or drugs, to treat cancer. You might take these drugs before or after surgery, with radiation (x-ray) treatment or you might take the medicines alone.

Most chemo drugs are given in one of the following ways:
You might simply swallow a pill. If your chemo is a pill or liquid, you can often take it at home, but you need to follow your doctor's directions.
Chemo can be given like a flu shot. The shots may be given in your doctor's office, a hospital, a clinic, or at home.
Most often, chemo is given right into your veins through a needle or tiny plastic tube. This is called an IV (intravenous) injection.

4) Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy (also known as biologic therapy or biotherapy) is treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight disease, including cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways:
stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter
giving you immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins Immunotherapy is sometimes used by itself to treat cancer, but it is most often used along with or after another type of treatment to add to its effects

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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Cancer Case - Types of Cancer (Part II)

Bladder Cancer:

This type of cancer forms in the tissue of the bladder. These types of cancer begin in the cell of the bladder that forms inner lining (carcinoma type). Sometimes squamous , in which the cancer begins in thin, flat cells and Adenocarcinoma , in which the cancer begins in cells that make and release mucus and other fluids may occurs,

Breast Cancer
As the name says it’s the cancer that occurs in the tissues of breast, Occurs mostly in ducts which carry the milk to nipple and in lobules that makes milk. It can occur in both men and women but rare in males.

Colon cancer:
It is the cancer that occurs in tissues of colon which is the longest part of the large intestine. They are mostly of type adenocarcinoma
Rectal cancer:
These type of cancers forms in the tissue of rectum which is the last inches of the large intestine before anus

Endometrial cancer:
They are formed at the tissues lining the uterus which is the organ in woman’s pelvis where the baby grows. Mostly endometrial cancers are of type adenocarcinoma

Kidney cancer:
They are formed at the tissues of Kidney
They are of three types
1) Renal cell carcinoma-Formed at the lining of small tubes in kidney which filters blood and water.
2) Renal pelvis carcinoma –Formed at the center of kidney
3) Wilm’s tumor-Kidney cancer that occurs in children under age

Leukemia:
It starts at the blood forming tissues like bone marrow so that large number of cells enters the bloodstream

Melanoma:
It is one of the type of skin cancer which begins at melanocytes which make the pigment melanin. Melanoma usually starts at mole.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma:
This type of cancer forms at the immune system. They can occur at any age. The Symptoms are enlarged lymph nodes, fever and weight loss.
They are classified into two types
1) Aggressive growing
2) Indolent or slow growing
Each one can be further classified as
a) B-Cell- Burkitt's lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma , follicular lymphoma, immunoblastic large cell lymphoma, precursor B-lymphoblastic lymphoma, and mantle cell lymphoma
B)T-Cell- mycosis fungoides , anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and precursor T-lymphoblastic lymphoma.
. Prognosis and treatment depend on the stage and type of disease.

Pancreatic cancer:
In this type of cancer malignant cancer cells are formed at pancreas. They are also known as exocrine cancer.

Prostate cancer:
This type of cancer are formed in the tissues of prostate which is the gland present in human reproductive system that is below the balder and is in front of the rectum.

Skin cancer:
They are formed at the tissues of skin. Cancers formed the cell making pigment are called melanoma.. When it is formed in cells that doesn’t makes pigment then it will begin at basal cells.Both cancers occurs at the part of the body exposed to sunlight such as skin on neck,face,hands and arms

Thyroid cancer:
They are formed at the thyroid gland which is present at thorat’s base and makes hormones to control heart rate,blood pressure ,temperature and weight.
Four types of cancer are present:
1) Papillary
2) Follicular
3) Medullary
4) AnaplasticThey are classified based on how they look under microscope

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Monday, April 2, 2007

Cancer Case - What is Cancer ? (Part I)

Cancer is a diseases characterized by rapid uncontrolled division of cells (cell proliferation) .This cancerous cells have the ability to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue , or by spreading into distant sites through the bloodstream or lymphatic system ,This is called as metastasis which results in damage of tissues adjacent to the cancerous cells. Cancer can occur to people of all ages, but it’s more probable to affect aged people (that is probability of occurrence increases as age increases). This disease is one of the principal causes of death in developed countries.

Cancer is seen not only in human beings but also in other organisms. This confirms that cancer is caused due to external factors that cause mutation (disturbance) in biological cells but not a hereditary factor. The factors may be external heat ,radiations (radio active dusts), harmful UV rays , certain chemicals , dissolved metallic dusts like lead , food we take (Bowel cancer due to beef consumption ), cigarette, drinks etc. In Current technology, using certain microwave devices causes mutation to the sensitive cells near to it. For example use of cell phone for a longer conversation produces heat that affect brain cells causing brain tumor. Even the physical stress too can cause cancer (Women wearing tight bra have high probability of being affected by breast cancer). The causative agents are termed as carcinogens.

Cell proliferation hi is a common physiological process that occurs in almost all tissues. Normally there will be balance between cell division (creation) and cell death, this ensure the integrity of organs and tissues. Mutations in cell's DNA strands leads to cancer disrupting these orderly processes. The uncontrolled and often rapid proliferation of cells can lead to either a benign tumor or a malignant tumor (cancer). Benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body or invade other tissues, and they are rarely a threat to life unless they extrinsically compress vital structures. Malignant tumors can invade other organs, spread to distant locations (metastasize) and become life-threatening one.

Severity of cancer depends on the site and character of the malignancy and the rate of metastasis. A cancer with high metastasis rate is considered as malignant .Usually the cancer is identified by examining the cell growth and division rate of tissues by pathologist. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery. Cancer at the benign level can be cured since the cancerous cells didn't enter the blood stream, and severity depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for the type of cancer pathology. Drugs that target specific cancers already exist for several types of cancer. If untreated, cancers may eventually cause illness and death, though this is not always the case. The unregulated growth that characterizes 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. 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. Many forms of cancer are associated with exposure to environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, radiation, alcohol, and certain viruses. Some risk factors can be avoided or reduced.

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Sunday, April 1, 2007

Exercise and Hypertension

It seems as though many Americans are living a life that leads to high blood pressure or hypertension. As people age, the situation gets worse. Nearly half of all older Americans have hypertension. This disease makes people five times more prone to strokes, three times more likely to have a heart attack, and two to three times more likely to experience a heart failure.
The problem with this disease is that nearly one third of the folks who have hypertension do not know it because they never feel any direct pain. But overtime the force of that pressure damages the inside surface of your blood vessels.
However, according to experts, hypertension is not predestined. Reducing salt intake, adopting a desirable dietary pattern losing weight and exercising can all help prevent hypertension.Obviously, quitting bad habits and eating a low fat diet will help, but the most significant part that you can do is to exercise. And just as exercise strengthens and improves limb muscles, it also enhances the health of the heart muscles.

Heart and Exercise

The exercise stimulates the development of new connections between the impaired and the nearly normal blood vessels, so people who exercise had a better blood supply to all the muscle tissue of the heart.
The human heart basically, supply blood to an area of the heart damaged in a “myocardial infarction.” A heart attack is a condition, in which, the myocardium or the heart muscle does not get enough oxygen and other nutrients and so it begins to die.
For this reason and after a series of careful considerations, some researchers have observed that exercise can stimulate the development of these life saving detours in the heart. One study further showed that moderate exercise several times a week is more effective in building up these auxiliary pathways than extremely vigorous exercise done twice as often.
Such information has led some people to think of exercise as a panacea for heart disorders, a fail-safe protection against hypertension or death. That is not so. Even marathon runners that have suffered hypertension, and exercise cannot overcome combination of other risk factor.

What Causes Hypertension?

Sometimes abnormalities of the kidney are responsible. There is also a study wherein the researchers identified more common contributing factors such as heredity, obesity, and lack of physical activity. And so, what can be done to lower blood pressure and avoid the risk of developing hypertension? Again, exercise seems to be just what the doctor might order.
If you think that is what he will do, then, try to contemplate on this list and find some ways how you can incorporate these things into your lifestyle and start to live a life free from the possibilities of developing hypertension. But before you start following the systematic instructions, it would be better to review them first before getting into action.
1. See your doctorCheck with your doctor before beginning an exercise program. If you make any significant changes in your level of physical activity — particularly if those changes could make large and sudden demands on your circulatory system — check with your doctors again.
2. Take it slow
Start at a low, comfortable level of exertion and progress gradually. The program is designed in two stages to allow for a progressive increase in activity.
3. Know your limit
Determine your safety limit for exertion. Use some clues such as sleep problems or fatigue the day after a workout to check on whether you are overdoing it. Once identified, stay within it. Over-exercising is both dangerous and unnecessary.
4. Exercise regularly
You need to work out a minimum of three times a week and a maximum of five times a week to get the most benefit. Once you are in peak condition, a single workout a week can maintain the muscular benefits. However, cardiovascular fitness requires more frequent activity.
5. Exercise at a rate within your capacity
The optimum benefits for older exercisers are produced by exercise at 40% to 60% of capacity.Indeed, weight loss through exercise is an excellent starting point if you wan tot prevent hypertension. Experts say that being overweight is linked to an increased risk of developing hypertension, and losing weight decreases the risk.

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