Cancer gives no signs or symptoms that exclusively explain the nature of disease. But however, if you have any of the symptoms mentioned below, you should consult your doctor/cancer specialist as soon as possible.
Here are some symptoms of common cancer:
*Continual Cough or blood tinged saliva- These could be symptoms of cancer in the head, lung (bronchitis) or neck. Even a general cough can become a symptom of cancer if it lasts for more than a month. If that is the case, you should consult your doctor immediately.
* Changes in bowel habits- If you observe changes in your bowel movement or feel abnormality even after you have had a bowel movement should see a doctor.
* Blood in stools- A doctor must always investigate the blood in the stools. These can be observed through X-rays. But sometimes, when the source is known, these steps may not be necessary.
*Unexplained anemia- Anemia is a condition when the actual number of RBCs (Red Blood Cells) is lower than the desired number. Your doctor must investigate anemia also.
Anemia can be caused my many cancers, but the bowel cancer can cause iron deficiency. Your upper and lower intestinal tracts should be either evaluated by endoscopy or x-rays.
* Breast discharge or breast lump-All breast lumps need to be investigated thoroughly. A negative mammogram isn't sufficient to evaluate breast lumps. Generally, diagnosis requires biopsy or needle aspiration. Most of these forms of discharges and lumps may be causes of cancer, so if there is blood discharge from only one nipple, then it must be evaluated as soon as possible.
* Testicle lumps- Most of the men having cancer have uncomfortable or painless lump in their testicles. Some may even have enlarged testicles. The lumps and other conditions like swollen and infectious veins need to be continuously evaluated.
Cancer is caused by several ways. Sometimes, doctors have to battle the disease using several methods at once, and sometimes they use one method step wise of sequentially.
Cancer can be treated by a number of ways, thanks to improvement and success of modern treatments. There are basically four method of treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy and biological therapy. In some cases, clinical trials may prove effective but everything depends on the type of cancer the person suffers from. There are other ways of treatment also which are not approved by the FDA and which are often given in countries other than USA.
When initially you’re diagnosed with cancer, the specialist/doctor will explain you how he will go with the treatment processes. But before that, he may also give you the treatment options. Generally a good doctor always gives you the best treatment which is based on the type of cancer you’re suffering from. Along with the treatment options, he or she will also give you details on how far its spread and the treatment duration etc.
But everything depends on your decision which usually depends on doctor’s opinion, alternative methods, information, treatment process and details gathered from specialists.
The actual goal of the treatment process is the complete removal of cancer without any adverse or side effects to the body. But the effect is often limited in the case of radiation therapy or by surgery due to toxicity of other tissues in the system. In fact, radiation can often lead to damage of normal tissues. Till date, there hasn’t been any 100 % effective cure for cancer, as cancer is a class of diseases. Radiation therapy is used to destroy cancer cells with X-rays or particles from radioactive elements such as cobalt 60.
Cause and Treatment for Cancer
Acne treatment
Acne is a menace. However, it's not article that cannot be tackled. There are endless of abscess bark affliction articles around. We can allocate abscess bark affliction articles into 3 ample categories ?
* Preventive or accepted abscess bark affliction products
* Over-the-counter, specialised abscess bark affliction articles
* On-prescription abscess bark affliction products.
The accepted abscess bark affliction articles are the ones that are acclimated as acne-prevention measure. These accommodate cleansers, composition removers and agnate articles that advice anticipate acne. In the absolute sense, these abscess bark affliction articles are aloof those that should anyhow be allotment of your circadian routine. However, some of these are added aggressive to act like an abscess bark affliction product. These abscess bark affliction articles act adjoin the causes of abscess e.g. attached the assembly of sebum/oil and preventing bottleneck of bark pores. Basically, these abscess bark affliction articles anticipate the oil from accepting trapped in pores and appropriately bassinet the advance of bacilli that advance to acne. The accepted abscess bark affliction articles additionally accommodate exfoliation articles like bark peels. These assignment appear removing asleep bark cells, appropriately abbreviation the achievability of pore-clogging and bacilli development.
Then there are specialised abscess bark affliction articles that are accessible over-the-counter i.e. after the charge of a prescription. These accommodate articles like vanishing creams which abstract the added oil from the skin. Most of these abscess bark affliction articles are based on benzoyl achromatize and salicylic acid, both of which are the enemies of bacilli (and appropriately acne). You should alpha with a artefact that has lower absorption of benzoyl achromatize (e.g. 5%) and see how your bark responds to it. Alpha-hydroxy-acid based moisturizers are additionally accepted as abscess bark affliction products. You ability accept to try a few, afore you zero-in on the abscess bark affliction artefact that is able for you. If annihilation seems to work, you should acquaintance a dermatologist.
On-prescription abscess bark affliction articles are the ones that are assigned by a dermatologist. This can accommodate ointments that can be activated on the afflicted breadth or articulate antibiotics or aloof any contemporary treatment. Dermatologist could additionally advance a accessory surgical action to abolish the capacity of pustules. However, never try to clasp or do this by yourself, it can advance to abiding accident of your skin. Your doctor could additionally appoint a hormone-based analysis (since hormonal changes are additionally accepted to account acne). Such abscess bark affliction articles are accepted to be actual able in some cases.
So, with all those abscess bark affliction products, arrest abscess is not that difficult.
Applications in Cancer Treatment
A cure for cancer exists through the use of yoga, San Antonio, Texas, cancer specialist said during a seminar in Oklahoma City in the years 1980.
But doctors refused to admit that they heal, said Col. Hansa Raval, MD, a pathologist with the United States army. Dr. Raval said her work in cytotechnology _ a diagnostic branch of medicine, designed to identify early stages of cancer _ was fruitless until she began research into the use of non-conventional methods of treatment.
The specialist said she witnessed the use of Raja yoga and meditation to cure crippling arthritis, headaches and even cancer.
And although
Raval offers proof that she said was collected during two years of study at the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University in India, having been dismissed by other members of the medical profession as a boil.
Yoga for the success as a treatment method is due to another hypothesis Raval suggests that 98 percent of all cancer is psychosomatic.
This is no singing or reciting mantras, the doctor said. It is not based on the writings. It is not a cult. It is not biofeedback. It is deeper than that. This is a full-proof method of meditation, a detailed understanding of what the soul is.
Raval says that the medical training trivialised the study of non-conventional methods of cancer treatment in favor of the conventional methods such as radiation, chemotherapy, and treatment through machines. "
Medical schools teach students that man is just a body. But the spirit is the power to heal the body. By definition, psychosomatic: a combination of spirit or soul and body.
The soul creates the disease, but the body suffers. If the psyche created the disease, the only way to heal is through the psyche. It is a very simple formula: treating the seed of the problem.
Further studies parapsychology any point on the treatment of the disease by the treatment of the soul.
The World Spiritual University, which has offices in 30 countries, teaches peace and perfection for health and happiness through the use of Raja yoga. The university was given the status as a non-governmental member of the United Nations and has offices in the UN building in New York.
Raja yoga teaches students to search their souls for answers to the world where they came from and why the cancer that their bodies. They learn what role religion, stress, family and lifestyle play in cancer.
Breast Cancer - Treatment
The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. At present, the treatment recommendations after surgery (adjuvant therapy) follow a pattern. This pattern is subject to change, as every two years, a worldwide conference takes place in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss the actual results of worldwide multi-center studies. Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases, with each risk category following different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy.
In planning treatment, doctors can also use PCR tests like Oncotype DX or microarray tests like MammaPrint that predict breast cancer recurrence risk based on gene expression. In February 2007, the MammaPrint test became the first breast cancer predictor to win formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a new gene test to help predict whether women with early-stage breast cancer will relapse in 5 or 10 years, this could help influence how aggressively the initial tumor is treated.
Peritoneal Mesothelioma - Summary, Diagnosis & Treatment
[Summary]
Peritoneal malignant mesothelioma, also known as primary peritoneal mesothelioma, and originated in peritoneal mesothelial organizations epithelial tumors. This rare disease than pleural mesothelioma, slightly higher than the male female. Etiology and asbestos exposure, the incidence and contacts for a long interval, and often in more than 30 years. Mesothelioma often benign single, located in the fallopian tubes, uterus top of the peritoneum, rare in other parts. Often diffuse malignant mesothelioma, covering all or part of peritoneal
[Diagnosis]
1. History questions
The exact cause of the abdominal pain, abdominal distension and gastrointestinal disorders, abdominal pain may be in for diversification, but the pain of the stubbornness of its common characteristics. The high incidence of ascites, in more than 90 per cent, in a longer or shorter period of abdominal pain, ascites suddenly appeared, but also in the early ascites appeared individually. The amount of ascites and stubborn. General situation in the longer term, little change, loss of appetite can be maintained, wasting not obvious, no fever, sometimes spontaneous hypoglycemia can occur. Can be associated with chest pain, difficulty breathing, coughing and other symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.
2. Medical examination found
Peng Long abdomen, or a frog belly, mobility voiced positive abdominal palpation can be touched on the size ranging from single or multiple masses, the general tenderness not obvious. As with pleural mesothelioma, pleural effusion can be found positive signs.
3. Laboratory examination
B-ultrasound and CT, can be found thin sheet of images and ascites tumor. Ascites for exudate, but also for the courage and uprightness. Hyaluronic acid such as ascites increased to 120 ug / ml, very helpful in the diagnosis. Ascites find new biological diagnosis of mesothelioma cells, but also the middle of the mesothelial cells of ascites chromosome analysis, help diagnosis. Laparoscopic seized visible peritoneal surface filled with plaques and nodules, and biopsy examination to confirm the diagnosis. It must be noted and tuberculous peritonitis, peritoneal metastasis of identification.
[Treatment]
General chemotherapy and radiotherapy are not satisfied with the results. Some reports in recent years with adriamycin treatment, 50% of cases of extended survival period, but there are also reports considered invalid. It was also advocate the use of immune therapy, needed further observation. General in the diagnosis of 1 ~ 2 years after death.
Lung Cancer - Treatment
Treatment for lung cancer depends on the cancer's specific cell type, how far it has spread, and the patient's performance status. Common treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
Surgery
If investigations confirm lung cancer, CT scan and often positron emission tomography (PET) are used to determine whether the disease is localised and amenable to surgery or whether it has spread to the point where it cannot be cured surgically.
Blood tests and spirometry (lung function testing) are also necessary to assess whether the patient is well enough to be operated on. If spirometry reveals poor respiratory reserve (often due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), surgery may be contraindicated.
Surgery itself has an operative death rate of about 4.4%, depending on the patient's lung function and other risk factors. Surgery is usually only an option in non-small cell lung carcinoma limited to one lung, up to stage IIIA. This is assessed with medical imaging (computed tomography, positron emission tomography). A sufficient pre-operative respiratory reserve must be present to allow adequate lung function after the tissue is removed.
Procedures include wedge resection (removal of part of a lobe), segmentectomy (removal of an anatomic division of a particular lobe of the lung), lobectomy (one lobe), bilobectomy (two lobes) or pneumonectomy (whole lung). In patients with adequate respiratory reserve, lobectomy is the preferred option, as this minimizes the chance of local recurrence. If the patient does not have enough functional lung for this, wedge resection may be performed. Radioactive iodine brachytherapy at the margins of wedge excision may reduce recurrence to that of lobectomy.
Chemotherapy
Small cell lung carcinoma is treated primarily with chemotherapy and radiation, as surgery has no demonstrable influence on survival. Primary chemotherapy is also given in metastatic non-small cell lung carcinoma.
The combination regimen depends on the tumor type. Non-small cell lung carcinoma is often treated with cisplatin or carboplatin, in combination with gemcitabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, etoposide or vinorelbine. In small cell lung carcinoma, cisplatin and etoposide are most commonly used. Combinations with carboplatin, gemcitabine, paclitaxel, vinorelbine, topotecan and irinotecan are also used.
Adjuvant chemotherapy for non-small cell lung carcinoma
Adjuvant chemotherapy refers to the use of chemotherapy after surgery to improve the outcome. During surgery, samples are taken from the lymph nodes. If these samples contain cancer, then the patient has stage II or III disease. In this situation, adjuvant chemotherapy may improve survival by up to 15%. Standard practice is to offer platinum-based chemotherapy (including either cisplatin or carboplatin).
Adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with stage IB cancer is controversial as clinical trials have not clearly demonstrated a survival benefit. Trials of preoperative chemotherapy (neoadjuvant chemotherapy) in resectable non-small cell lung carcinoma have been inconclusive.
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy is often given together with chemotherapy, and may be used with curative intent in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma who are not eligible for surgery. This form of high intensity radiotherapy is called radical radiotherapy. A refinement of this technique is continuous hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy (CHART), where a high dose of radiotherapy is given in a short time period. For small cell lung carcinoma cases that are potentially curable, in addition to chemotherapy, chest radiation is often recommended. The use of adjuvant thoracic radiotherapy following curative intent surgery for non-small cell lung carcinoma is not well established and controversial. Benefits, if any, may only be limited to those in whom the tumor has spread to the mediastinal lymph nodes.
For both non-small cell lung carcinoma and small cell lung carcinoma patients, smaller doses of radiation to the chest may be used for symptom control (palliative radiotherapy). Unlike other treatments, it is possible to deliver palliative radiotherapy without confirming the histological diagnosis of lung cancer.
Patients with limited stage small cell lung carcinoma are usually given prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI). This is a type of radiotherapy to the brain, used to reduce the risk of metastasis. More recently, PCI has also been shown to be beneficial in those with extensive small cell lung cancer. In patients whose cancer has improved following a course of chemotherapy, PCI has been shown to reduce the cumulative risk of brain metastases within one year from 40.4% to 14.6%.
Recent improvements in targeting and imaging have led to the development of extracranial stereotactic radiation in the treatment of early-stage lung cancer. In this form of radiation therapy, very high doses are delivered in a small number of sessions using stereotactic targeting techniques. Its use is primarily in patients who are not surgical candidates due to medical comorbidities.
Interventional radiology
Radiofrequency ablation should currently be considered an investigational technique in the treatment of bronchogenic carcinoma. It is done by inserting a small heat probe into the tumor to kill the tumor cells.
Targeted therapy
In recent years, various molecular targeted therapies have been developed for the treatment of advanced lung cancer. Gefitinib (Iressa) is one such drug, which targets the tyrosine kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) which is expressed in many cases of non-small cell lung carcinoma. It was not shown to increase survival, although females, Asians, non-smokers and those with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma appear to derive the most benefit from gefitinib.
Erlotinib (Tarceva), another tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been shown to increase survival in lung cancer patient, and has recently been approved by the FDA for second-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma. Similar to gefitinib, it appeared to work best in females, Asians, non-smokers and those with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma.
The angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab (in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin) improves the survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma. However this increases the risk of lung bleeding, particularly in patients with squamous cell carcinoma.
Advances in cytotoxic drugs, pharmacogenetics and targeted drug design show promise. A number of targeted agents are at the early stages of clinical research, such as cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors, the apoptosis promoter exisulind, proteasome inhibitors, bexarotene and vaccines. Future areas of research include ras proto-oncogene inhibition, phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibition, histone deacetylase inhibition, and tumor suppressor gene replacement.
Originally from Wikipedia.org
Cancer - Treatment
Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy or other methods. The choice of therapy depends upon the location and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease, as well as the general state of the patient (performance status). A number of experimental cancer treatments are also under development.
Complete removal of the cancer without damage to the rest of the body is the goal of treatment. Sometimes this can be accomplished by surgery, but the propensity of cancers to invade adjacent tissue or to spread to distant sites by microscopic metastasis often limits its effectiveness. The effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by toxicity to other tissues in the body. Radiation can also cause damage to normal tissue.
Because "cancer" refers to a class of diseases, it is unlikely that there will ever be a single "cure for cancer" any more than there will be a single treatment for all infectious diseases.
Surgery
In theory, non-hematological 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. In the Halstedian model of cancer progression, tumors grow locally, then spread to the lymph nodes, then to the rest of the body. This has given rise to the popularity of local-only treatments such as surgery for small cancers. Even small localized tumors are increasingly recognized as possessing metastatic potential.
Examples of surgical procedures for cancer include mastectomy for breast cancer and prostatectomy for prostate cancer. The goal of the surgery can be either the removal of only the tumor, or the entire organ. A single cancer cell is invisible to the naked eye but can regrow into a new tumor, a process called recurrence. For this reason, the pathologist will examine the surgical specimen to determine if a margin of healthy tissue is present, thus decreasing the chance that microscopic cancer cells are left in the patient.
In addition to removal of the primary tumor, surgery is often necessary for staging, e.g. determining the extent of the disease and whether it has metastasized to regional lymp nodes. Staging is a major determinant of prognosis and of the need for adjuvant therapy.
Occasionally, surgery is necessary to control symptoms, such as spinal cord compression or bowel obstruction. This is referred to as palliative treatment.
Radiation therapy
Main article: Radiation therapy
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 therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated (the "target tissue") by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible for these cells to continue to grow and divide. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue. Hence, it is given in many fractions, allowing healthy tissue to recover between fractions.
Radiation therapy may be used to treat almost every type of solid tumor, including cancers of the brain, breast, cervix, larynx, lung, pancreas, prostate, skin, stomach, uterus, or soft tissue sarcomas. Radiation is also used to treat leukemia and lymphoma. Radiation dose to each site depends on a number of factors, including the radiosensitivity of each cancer type and whether there are tissues and organs nearby that may be damaged by radiation. Thus, as with every form of treatment, radiation therapy is not without its side effects.
Chemotherapy
Main article: Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs ("anticancer drugs") that can destroy cancer cells. In current usage, the term "chemotherapy" usually refers to cytotoxic drugs which affect rapidly dividing cells in general, in contrast with targeted therapy (see below).
Chemotherapy drugs interfere 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, although some degree of specificity may come from the inability of many cancer cells to repair DNA damage, while normal cells generally can. 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.
Because some drugs work better together than alone, two or more drugs are often given at the same time. This is called "combination chemotherapy"; most chemotherapy regimens are given in a combination.
The 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. For this reason, bone marrow, or peripheral blood stem cell harvesting is carried out before the ablative part of the therapy, to enable "rescue" after the treatment has been given. This is known as autologous stem cell transplantation. Alternatively, hematopoietic stem cells may be transplanted from a matched unrelated donor (MUD).
Targeted therapies
Main article: Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy, which first became available in the late 1990s, has had a significant impact in the treatment of some types of cancer, and is currently a very active research area. This constitutes the use of agents specific for the deregulated proteins of cancer cells. Small molecule targeted therapy drugs are generally inhibitors of enzymatic domains on mutated, overexpressed, or otherwise critical proteins within the cancer cell. Prominent examples are the tyrosine kinase inhibitors imatinib and gefitinib.
Monoclonal antibody therapy is another strategy in which the therapeutic agent is an antibody which specifically binds to a protein on the surface of the cancer cells. Examples include the anti-HER2/neu antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) used in breast cancer, and the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab, used in a variety of B-cell malignancies.
Targeted therapy can also involve small peptides as "homing devices" which can bind to cell surface receptors or affected extracellular matrix surrounding the tumor. Radionuclides which are attached to this peptides (e.g. RGDs) eventually kill the cancer cell if the nuclide decays in the vicinity of the cell. Especially oligo- or multimers of these binding motifs are of great interest, since this can lead to enhanced tumor specificity and avidity.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a ternary treatment for cancer involving a photosensitizer, tissue oxygen, and light (often using lasers). PDT can be used as treatment for basal cel carcinoma (BCC) or lung cancer; PDT can also be useful in removing traces of malignant tissue after surgical removal of large tumors.
Immunotherapy
Main article: Cancer immunotherapy
Cancer immunotherapy refers to a diverse set of therapeutic strategies designed to induce the patient's own immune system to fight the tumor. Contemporary methods for generating an immune response against tumours include intravesical BCG immunotherapy for superficial bladder cancer, and use of interferons and other cytokines to induce an immune response in renal cell carcinoma and melanoma patients. Vaccines to generate specific immune responses are the subject of intensive research for a number of tumours, notably malignant melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Sipuleucel-T is a vaccine-like strategy in late clinical trials for prostate cancer in which dendritic cells from the patient are loaded with prostatic acid phosphatase peptides to induce a specific immune response against prostate-derived cells.
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ("bone marrow transplantation" from a genetically non-identical donor) can be considered a form of immunotherapy, since the donor's immune cells will often attack the tumor in a phenomenon known as graft-versus-tumor effect. For this reason, allogeneic HSCT leads to a higher cure rate than autologous transplantation for several cancer types, although the side effects are also more severe.
Hormonal therapy
Main article: Hormonal therapy (oncology)
The growth of some cancers can be inhibited by providing or blocking certain hormones. Common examples of hormone-sensitive tumors include certain types of breast and prostate cancers. Removing or blocking estrogen or testosterone is often an important additional treatment. In certain cancers, administration of hormone agonists, such as progestogens may be therapeutically beneficial.
Angiogenesis inhibitor
Main article: Angiogenesis inhibitor
Angiogenesis inhibitors prevent the extensive growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis) that tumors require to survive. Some, such as bevacizumab, have been approved and are in clinical use. One of the main problems with anti-angiogenesis drugs is that many factors stimulate blood vessel growth, in normal cells and cancer. Anti-angiogenesis drugs only target one factor, so the other factors continue to stimulate blood vessel growth. Other problems include route of administration, maintenance of stability and activity and targeting at the tumor vasculature.
Symptom control
Although the control of the symptoms of cancer is not typically thought of as a treatment directed at the cancer, it is an important determinant of the quality of life of cancer patients, and plays an important role in the decision whether the patient is able to undergo other treatments. Although doctors generally have the therapeutic skills to reduce pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hemorrhage and other common problems in cancer patients, the multidisciplinary specialty of palliative care has arisen specifically in response to the symptom control needs of this group of patients.
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. Improved antiemetics such as ondansetron and analogues, as well as aprepitant have made aggressive treatments much more feasible in cancer patients.
Chronic pain due to cancer is almost always associated with continuing tissue damage due to the disease process or the treatment (i.e. surgery, radiation, chemotherapy). Although there is always a role for environmental factors and affective disturbances in the genesis of pain behaviors, these are not usually the predominant etiologic factors in patients with cancer pain. Furthermore, many patients with severe pain associated with cancer are nearing the end of their lives and palliative therapies are required. Issues such as social stigma of using opioids, work and functional status, and health care consumption are not likely to be important in the overall case management. Hence, the typical strategy for cancer pain management is to get the patient as comfortable as possible using opioids and other medications, surgery, and physical measures. Doctors have been reluctant to prescribe narcotics for pain in terminal cancer patients, for fear of contributing to addiction or suppressing respiratory function. The palliative care movement, a more recent offshoot of the hospice movement, has engendered more widespread support for preemptive pain treatment for cancer patients.
Fatigue is a very common problem for cancer patients, and has only recently become important enough for oncologists to suggest treatment, even though it plays a significant role in many patients' quality of life.
Complementary and alternative
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments are the diverse group of medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not part of conventional medicine. Oncology, the study of human cancer, has a long history of incorporating unconventional or botanical treatments into mainstream cancer therapy. Some examples of this phenomenon include the chemotherapy agent paclitaxel, which is derived from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, and ATRA, all-trans retinoic acid, a derivative of Vitamin A that induces cures in an aggressive leukemia known as acute promyelocytic leukemia. Many "complementary" and "alternative" medicines for cancer have not been studied using the scientific method, such as in well-designed clinical trials, or they have only been studied in preclinical (animal or in-vitro) laboratory studies. Many times, "complementary" and "alternative" medicines are supported by marketing materials and testimonials from users of the substances. Frequently, when these treatments are subjected to rigorous scientific testing, they are found not to work. A recent example was reported at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology: a Phase III clinical trial comparing shark cartilage extract to placebo in non-small cell lung cancer demonstrated no benefit of the shark cartilage extract, AE-491.
"Complementary medicine" refers to methods and substances used along with conventional medicine, while "alternative medicine" refers to compounds used instead of conventional medicine. A study of CAM use in patients with cancer in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that 69% of 453 cancer patients had used at least one CAM therapy as part of their cancer treatment.
Some complementary measures include botanical medicine, such as an NIH trial currently underway testing mistletoe extract combined with chemotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors; acupuncture for managing chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting and in controlling pain associated with surgery; and psychological approaches such as "imaging" or meditation to aid in pain relief or improve mood.
A wide range of alternative treatments have been offered for cancer over the last century. The appeal of alternative cures arises from the daunting risks, costs, or potential side effects of many conventional treatments, or in the limited prospect for cure. Some people resort to these so-called "alternative" forms of treatment in desperation or as a last resort. However, no alternative therapies have been shown in any scientific study to effectively treat cancer. Some express the view that the promotion and sale of certain alternative modalities known to be ineffective constitute quackery.
Treatment trials
Clinical trials, also called research studies, test new treatments in people with cancer. The goal of this research is to find better ways to treat cancer and help cancer patients. Clinical trials test many types of treatment such as new drugs, new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy, new combinations of treatments, or new methods such as gen therapy.
A clinical trial is one of the final stages of a long and careful cancer research process. The search for new treatments begins in the laboratory, where scientists first develop and test new ideas. If an approach seems promising, the next step may be testing a treatment in animals to see how it affects cancer in a living being and whether it has harmful effects. Of course, treatments that work well in the lab or in animals do not always work well in people. Studies are done with cancer patients to find out whether promising treatments are safe and effective.
Patients who take part may be helped personally by the treatment(s) they receive. They get up-to-date care from cancer experts, and they receive either a new treatment being tested or the best available standard treatment for their cancer. Of course, there is no guarantee that a new treatment being tested or a standard treatment will produce good results. New treatments also may have unknown risks, but if a new treatment proves effective or more effective than standard treatment, study patients who receive it may be among the first to benefit.
Originally from Wikipedia.org
