Chemotherapy is a well-coined term that most people understand to be a somewhat invasive treatment against cancer with somewhat unpleasant side effects.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy consists of the treatment of different diseases by means of chemical substances. Today’s evaluation of the word refers to the therapy treatment against cancer with the pertinent cytotoxic preparation. These are indeed chemical substances that block the mechanism that allows the cancer cell to divide. Cytotoxic medicines are also deadly dangerous for the healthy cells in the body’s organism. Because of this fact usually chemotherapy leads to unpleasant nausea and vomiting, hair loss and other equally drawbacks of side effects. All of them only last for a short time and can be monitored and guided by medicines. Once the therapy has been completed the body will continue to produce normal cells and all of these debilitating side effects will disappear.

Combining medicines

The chemotherapy schemes sometimes recommend and include combinations of medications called regimes or cycles. Combinations are used because these different medicines actually harm the cancer cells in a different manner and this results in the treatment being even more successful. The effects achieved by employing these tactics is far larger than the effect of just one sole medicine. This effect is called synergism. Also medicines mixed in small doses have less side effects and yet doesn’t effect the treatment results. Other reasons for combining medicines is to prevent resistance to the medication. Chomotherapy regimes are combinations of medication that are given to the patient in a pre-determined sequence and in certain doses.

Cycles of chemotherapy

A single dose of the chemotherapy destroys only part of the tumor cells and because of this a couple of doses of chemotherapy is required to destroy all cancer cells. Medicines are given by a certain scheme and specific medicine is given on a specific day as medical checks show the sequence in which the medicines must be given in order to achieve the maximum amount of cancer cells being destroyed but at the same time with minimal side effects. Courses of cancer healing can vary between 8, 10 or more, depending on the stage the cancer has reached, the type and the medicines daily deals which are administered to attack the tumor.

Importance of the dosage

Thickness of the dose is a term which is used to describe the maximum amount of medicines that can be taken over a certain period of time with acceptable side effects. Research show that this method has become extremely successful in the treatment of some types of cancers. Also reduction of the dosage or delaying it leads to negative results for the patient.

Side effects

It is important that the patients know that every change in the regime to control the short term side effects may lead to different consequences than those expected. Some side effects can be painful but bearable. Some can be serious but can be controlled. The important thing is to follow the exact scheme of treatment that is projected to produce the optimum results.

Advances in the field of cancer are continuously evolving to secure the best possible results for cancer sufferers.

Breast cancer is a disease condition when the tissue of the breast is damaged.It is the most widespread cancer amongst women and the second main cause of death. Luckily over the last few years we have seen a wealth of productive and successful advances against breast cancer, which is totally exciting. Before there were maybe only one or two options open to sufferers but today there’s a wide choice to combat the disease.

Surgery

Most women with breast cancer need some kind of surgery on the primary tumor. The aim is to remove as big a part of the cancer as possible.

• Tumor resection – also called “breast saving surgery”- removes the cancer formation. This is then usually followed by radio or chemotherapy.
• Partial or Segmental mastectomy – almost the same as the former one but a bigger damaged tissue is removed. Followed by radiotherapy.
• Total mastectomy – with this surgery the whole breast is removed excluding the lymph nodes and the muscle tissue under the breast.
• Radical mastectomy – the whole breast is removed along with the lymph nodes and the muscle tissue under the breast. Today this procedure is used less because it has ben proved that it has the same effect in early and advanced stages of the cancer.

Some side effects include infection or blood and/or fluid collecting in the affected area.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy includes use of anticancer medication injected into the body or administered orally through the mouth. These medicines spread through the body via the blood and reach the cancer cells. These medicines kill not only the damaged cells but also the healthy ones and so there can be side effects:

• Fatigue and exhaustion
• Nausea and vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Hair loss
• Menstruation changes
• Higher risks of infections
• Bleeding or not healing in the case of minimal injuries.

Radiation therapy

Radiotherapy uses high energy rays that have the ability to kill or decrease the number of cancer cells. The source of the radiation can be outside the body or can be directly placed into the tumor. Every procedure lasts a couple minutes and it is painless. Side effects can be noted as heaviness in the breast and sheer exhaustion. Some women notice a decrease in the breast size after the radiotherapy. This kind of therapy isn’t allowed during pregnancy because it could harm the baby.

Hormone therapy

The female hormone estrogen causes enlargement of the cancer cells in the breast of some women. These patients use different methods to neutralize the estrogen’s effect so they can treat the cancer. Medicine like Tamoxifen is used against the estrogen’s effect. Aromatase inhibitors are a type of medicine that doesn’t allow the organism to produce estrogen. They are for use only for women in menopause and who have a cancer formation with hormone receptors.

Post therapy

After the first course of therapy it is important to go often to your health checks. You must inform your doctor of every symptom or side effect that worries you. Problems that trouble women with breast cancer are hair loss, changes in the body skin after radiation therapy and the overall result of the therapy. Many women with early diagnosed breast cancer restore their physical and psychological health after a year.

There are three main types of blood cancer i.e. leukemia, myeloma and lymphoma, which are neoplastic diseases originating from the bone marrow or lymphatic body tissue. They are characterized by producing white blood cells and result in affecting how the body provides protection from new disease. Luckily the successful radiation and chemotherapy treatments have tremendously increased survival rates for sufferers.

Basic info

Leukemia is a term that was first introduced by Rudolf Virchow – a German doctor and biologist in the19th century. Leukemia quite literally means white blood (from the Greek leukos and haemia). It’s a disease common to all age groups – from infants to older people. It’s the most often diagnosed child cancer. Leukemias are divided in two groups – acute and chronic. Then even acute ones itself is broken down to lymphoblastic and myelogenous, while the chronic ones are lymphocytic and myelogenous. Most common in small children is the acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Symptoms

Similar to all blood cell the leukemia cells also circulate throughout the entire body. People with chronic leukemia do not have symptoms, although the doctor can discover the disease during a routine blood test.

People with acute leukemia usually consult with their doctor because they are feeling unwell. If the brain is damaged in any way they will suffer headaches, vomiting, loss of muscle control and seizures. Leukemia can harm other parts of the body also, such the lung, kidney and testicles. Symptoms include:

• swollen lymph nodes
• fever and night sweats
• often infections
• feeling of weakness and fatigue
• loss of weight due to unknown reasons
• pain in the bones and joints

Treatment

People with blood cancer have many possible methods of medication – chemotherapy, biological therapy, radio therapy and transplantation of stem cells. If the spleen has increased in size your doctor may offer surgery to remove it.

The choice of treatment depends on certain factors:

• leukemia type
• the age of the patient
• is there leukemia cells in the cerebrospinal fluid
• patient’s overall health

Procedure

People with acute leukemia must start treatment immediately. The aim is to destroy signs of leukemia in the organism. This is called remission. After someone is in remission they start a maintenance therapy. Most people with acute leukemia can be cured completely.

Advances

If you have chronic leukemia without symptoms you can’t start treatment immediately. Your doctor must watch your health closely and then arrange treatment to start when the symptoms appear. When you reach the stage that you need treatment, the disease can then be controlled and you may receive maintenance therapy to stay in remission. However, the only way to completely cure chronic leukemia is with chemotherapy.

Over the last few years treatment with stem cells has advanced and the transplantation of these cells is often employed. For the transplant a stem cell donor is required – whether someone can donate to someone else is determined by the antigens on the surface of his white blood cells. But the problem is that there are many different combinations of antigens and the result is that the chance of donor and recipient matching is around 0,01%. For this very reason the first search for a donor is if you have brothers and sisters -and even then the chance of a match is a mere 25%. If there is no match, a non-related donor can provide cells for transplantation.

Primary peritoneal cancer is perhaps the most rare type of cancer in existence and is often referred to as Carcinoma. It affects the membrane lining abdomen by adhering to it and covering all the organs in the abdomen (for example the intestines, the liver and the stomach). This then results in the generation of a fluid that promotes soft movement of organs inside the abdomen itself.

Spread of Peritoneal Cancer

Peritoneal cancer is sometimes confused with intestinal cancer but the main difference is that peritoneal cancer begins in the peritoneum, while intestinal cancer extends to the peritoneum – hence its name peritoneal cancer. Peritoneal cancer is widespread in women especially and women at risk of ovarian cancer have a  high chance of suffering from peritoneal cancer. Older- aged women are not immune to it either unfortunately.

Signs

Primary peritoneal cancer is very hard to identify in its premature phase, for the simple reason that its signs are somewhat indistinct and are not easily identifiable. By the time the signs are clearly visible , the cancer has already progressed to an advanced stage. Signs of primary peritoneal cancer can include queasiness or diarrhoea, constipation, loss of appetite, abrupt weight loss/gain and strange vaginal bleeding amongst others.

Diagnosis

The physician revises your medical history and carries out a physical exam that entails searching for anything unusual in the vagina, bladder, uterus, fallopian tubes, rectum or ovaries. The check may include ultrasound and a CA-125 blood sample test as well.  An X-ray providing  comprehensive pictures of the inner body is taken via a CT scan and lower GI series tests show up the tumours and any other irregularities.

A biopsy is taken, which involves removing tissue through laparotomy and this may lead to removal of organ(s) if the doctor perceives any sign of cancer. Where surgery is impossible, an assessment fluid is employed to ascertain where the pattern of tumours indicate the presence of cancer.

Treatment of Peritoneal Cancer

The treatment of primary peritoneal cancer heavily depends on three factors which are, the extent and area of the cancer, phase and rating and lastly the age and general health status of the patient. Consequently the factors affecting treatment of the cancer may include:

Surgery – surgery aids considerably in the diagnosis and eliminates tumours as  the surgeon proceeds to get rid of all evident disease. This may lead to removal of tissues and/or organs, depending on what is discovered.

Chemotherapy – This is the administration of drugs, either directly or indirectly. This is the most intricate  sequence of the treatment schedule. Drugs may be administered via injection for 2 – 3 weeks on a outpatient basis. Also drugs can be administered directly into the abdomen via a catheter.

After diagnosis, it is recommended that all cancer be removed as soon as possible by a surgeon. Doctors closely monitor the patient after treatment due to the speed at which this cancer can indeed spread. The re-appearance of primary peritoneal cancer is common even after treatment because it has already been diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Renal cell carcinoma is the most frequent type of kidney cancer appearing in adults and mainly in men between the ages of 50 and 70. There is no confirmed cause for this illness as yet although we know that it actually stems from the cell cover the kidney tubules. Children themselves usually suffer from the Wilms’ tumor which is rarely found in adults at all. Having to live with kidney cancer includes having to acknowledge your diagnosis, realizing what is involved in advanced kidney cancer and indeed how to manage the disease successfully.

Early stages

This kind of cancer can be growing over a long time without any health complaints or it being noticed and this is because the kidney isn’t very well supplied with sensitive nerves. Another specific character of this particular cancer is that it spreads via the blood system and often gets into the lungs – and this then leads to metastasis of the lungs. This is one cancer that if it’s found in the very early stages then there is a good possibility that can be completely cured.

Age and frequency occurrence

The frequency of kidney cancer increases with age. And indeed this tumor occurs in men two times more than in women. It is believed that this is caused by the habit of smoking, which is more usual in men.

Reasons

Approximately every third case of kidney cancer is caused by smoking. This also pertains to the statistics regarding cancer of bladder. Some of the most harmful carcinogens in cigarette smoke proceeds directly to the urine and there they it just simply builds up. Because of this, the kidney and the urinary bladder are most exposed to the danger of cancer.

Variations

The most widely seen is the kidney cancer hypernephroma. 85 % of the people who have kidney cancer suffer from this particular type. In children there is a different variation of cancer – the Wilms’ tumor which can luckily be cured more successfully.

Cancer symptoms

● blood appearing in the urine;

● pain or discomfort in the hip region;

● dull ache that continues for hours on end.

Treatment

Even if the cancer has developed into metastasis in another part of the body surgery is the best option open to the patient. The removal of the kidney will eliminate all pain and discomfort. It will often stop the bleeding from the tumor. The other reason for the surgery is that sometimes after removal of the kidney tumor the secondary tumor (i.e. the metastasis) can disappear altogether.

Surgery – In most of the cases surgery includes removing the whole kidney affected with the lymphs and this is called nephrectomy.

Hormone therapy – Some variations of kidney cancer are susceptible to hormone therapy with progesterone. The hormone tablets usually don’t have any side effects except that patients will have more appetite and additional energy.

Immune stimulator – Hypernephroma is one of the cancer types that are sensitive to treatment with medication that stimulates the immune system. Medicines of this type are Interferon and Interlefkin. However, their use must be seriously considered because they may lead to many other unwanted side effects.

Chemotherapy – It helps only in small percentage of kidney cancers.

Spontaneous regression of the cancer – The kidney carcinoma is one of the four variations of cancer where there are documented cases of spontaneous regression(disappearing) of the tumor. Others are melanoma, neuroblastoma and chorioncarcinoma. In rare occasions there is full regression of the kidney cancer and its metastasis in the lungs.

In summary factors that are significant are smoking, exposure to radiation or working with metals such as cadmium. Also if the patient is overweight or has high blood pressure he/she will be at risk. And logically if there is a history of congenital disease the risk is indeed possible.