Cancer. A word that people dread and fear. For ages the thought of cancer scared people and they had no idea what to do about it. But today doctors and scientists are learning more and more about it all the time and it is not always a lost cause anymore. There is so many different kinds of cancer; brain, breast, lung, lymphatic, the list goes on and on. In 2012 my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer and my world was turned upside down, never to be the same again. She experienced all the treatments available and went through all the procedures that come with it. Origin of cancer. The Greeks first discovered cancer and they thought it looked similar to a crab and when it was translated into Latin, the Latin word for crab is cancer. Gupta Longati …show more content…
Tumors are abnormal growth of a tissue that is uncontrollable. There are two different types of tumors, benign tumors are always primary and only grow in one spot, never moving. Malignant tumors are considered cancerous, usually start somewhere else in the body and then spread. They also grow very fast. The causes of cancer are not always known. It may have come from chemicals in the environment, radiation, smoking, viruses, and sometimes those genes are the problem. Diet and the acidic environment in the body can also play a big part in it as well. Cancer begins when certain cells in the body start to grow out of hand. All cells have the potential to be cancerous, but few make it to that point. There are a multitude of different kinds of cancer, but they all start out the same way, irregular cells growing uncontrollable. Brain cancer affects the ability of the nervous system to function properly. The brain uses all of the stimuli it receives from the nervous system to direct and send impulses to all the organs in the body to function. Brain cancer disrupts the signals and the body can't work as well as it …show more content…
Number one that people immediately think of is surgery. Surgery can be very effective in getting rid of the cancer. But sometimes part or all of the cancer is in a part of the brain that is inoperable so they can't remove it. In that case they get what they can out and then use other methods to try and get rid of the rest. These options include chemotherapy and radiation. Chemotherapy is not always used to treat brain tumors as the blood-brain barrier can prevent some drugs from reaching the cancerous cells. And it can sometimes make the symptoms worse and end in death. The most common therapy is radiation, the tumor is irradiated with beta, x rays or gamma rays. Radiation has some bad side effects, it kills the cancer cells in your brain, but it also kills other cells in the brain as
Cancer is the term used to describe a group of diseases consisting of hundreds of ailments and although there exists so many different types of cancer, they all begin in a similar way. The body is made up of over a trillion cells, and cancer is the uncontrolled growth of malfunctioning cells in the body (Dawson, 1996). “Normal body cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. During the early years of a person’s life, normal cells divide faster to allow the person to grow. After the person becomes an adult, most cells divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells or to repair injuries” (American Cancer Society, 2012).
According to SEER Statistics, 23,380 people are estimated to get a brain or nervous system cancer diagnosis. Out of those people, 14,320 people are estimated to die from their brain or nervous system cancer diagnosis (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is a type of dangerous tumor, or a buildup of extra cells that form a mass of tissue, that can be life threatening (National Cancer Institute). The term for a tumor that is cancerous is a malignat tumor, whereas a benign tumor does not contain cancer cells (National Cancer Institute). According to the National Cancer Institute, the causes of brain cancer are unknown, but risk factors include family history and excessive radiaton exposure. Although they are not always due to a brain tumor, comon symptoms include headaches, nausea, speech, hearing, vision, and mood changes, problems with balance and mamories, seizures, and numbness in arms and legs (National Cancer Institute). MRI and CT scans as well as surgical biposies (or the removal of part of the tumor to be examined) are used to diagnose brain cancer (National Cancer Institute). Different types of treatment options include radiation therapy, surgery to remove the tumor, and chemotherapy. According to Charles Davis, MD, PhD and Nitin Tandon, MD of WebMD.com, chemotherapy is “ the use of powerful drugs to kill tumor cells”. There are a few different types of chemotherapy, but all of which bring out the same kinds of side effects. Although the physical side effects of chemotherapy are commonly known, few people know of the emotional toll chemotherapy can take on a patient and his or her family as they go though this process.
Cancer is very deadly and kills millions each year. There is so much about brain cancer that a lot of people are not aware of. If someone you know or love has cancer you should first educate you self and always keep an open mind. Doctors went to college and know what to do. I know there isn’t a cure yet but maybe someday there will be. Its up to you to decide if you are truly up for the fight for the cure. I could be you who finds it if you are really up for it. Millions of people will be waiting.
I would not be the only one to admit that when I hear the word cancer, I cringe. I know how broad the topic is but I want to focus on one specific form of cancer and that is Leukemia. When my cousin, Johnny, was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 12, we had to familiarize ourselves with the term. We knew that it was cancer and that people die from this disease and that it wasn't contagious but we still were scared that it might somehow jump from his to us. That is because we were ignorant to the disease. We didn't realize the toll that would have on his body or how he felt.
We now can find what specific cancer a patient has and where, and give them a variety of treatment options such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and several other types of treatment including experimental drugs. But there is no 100% guarantee that these treatments work. Ancient physicians and surgeons knew that cancer usually came back after it was removed surgically and recognized that there was no cure once the cancer had spread, and thought that intervention may be more harmful that no treatment at all. Some people today still think of cancer as incurable and wait until the last minute to go to the doctor. Galen was a 2nd- century Greek doctor that claimed a breast cancer tumor could be completely removed if it was caught at an early enough
One of the biggest clinical trials involves hormone therapy. This treatment uses medication to prevent the tumors from getting the hormones, such as estrogen, that they need to thrive. Removal of the ovaries and other hormone producing glands may also be prescribed. Another treatment option being studied is bone marrow transplantation. Bone marrow can be taken from healthy parts of the patient's own body or from other donors.
A brain tumor is abnormal growth of tissue in the brain or central spine that can disrupt proper brain function. Doctors refer to a tumor based on where the tumor cells originated, and whether they are cancerous (malignant) or not (benign). Benign: The least aggressive type of brain tumor is often called a benign brain tumor. They originate from cells within or surrounding the brain, do not contain cancer cells, grow slowly, and typically have clear borders that do not spread into other tissue. Malignant: Malignant brain tumors contain cancer cells and often do not have clear borders. They are considered to be life threatening because they grow rapidly and invade surrounding brain tissue
Over the past few decades, cancer has become a very prominent disease. There are many different types of cancer and many different causes of the the disease. Most cancers are caused by a genetic mutation. The most common type occurs when a cell is divided. Proto-oncogenes, which are alleles in normal cells, mutate to form oncogenes.
The exact cause of a tumor is an enigma, but scientists have scrutinized tumors and have discovered several factors that result in a higher risk of developing one. A change in the genetic structure of a cell is usually what induces a tumor. The mutation can either be inherited or caused by the environment. (Understanding
What is cancer? Cancer is a topic that is always being talked about in the medical field. It is regarded in 4 stages, the first being the least intense and the fourth being the most intense. Cancer is a disorder in the process of cell division.
Lung cancer may cause specific symptoms. The sypmptoms which are often described as assyndromes, some of the examples are:Horner syndrome,This type of cancer affects the top part of the lungs, which the doctors call Pancoast tumor. It may destroy the nerve that pass through the upper chest into the neck. This causes severe shoulder pain. Normally the tumor causes a group of signs and symptoms known as the Horner syndrome.
The treatment for lung cancer depends on what type and what stage the cancer is on. If you have non-small cell lung cancer is treated by having surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy, or with a combination of all these treatments all together. Doctors can use all those treatments to treat non-small cell lung cancer. The treatments that you need to treat small cell lung cancer are with radiation and chemotherapy. (Lung Cancer,
There are many different types of cancer that are actually deadly or that can be cured if found quick enough. The first cancer I have come across is a cancer of the stomach called gastrointestinal stromal tumors. This type of cancer spreads through the inner part of the stomach and begins to transpire if it is not caught in enough time. My mother actually passed away from this cancerous stromal tumor. The symptoms are loss of weight, loss of appetite, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain or discomfort.
Cancer is a genetic disease that is caused by the changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they divide and grow. Genetic changes that cause cancer can be inherited from our parents. They can also arise during a person's lifetime as a result of errors that occur as cell divide of because damage to DNA caused by certain environmental exposure. In general, Cancer cells have more genetic changes, such as mutations in DNA, than normal cells. Some of these changes may have nothing to do with cancer,
...ormal functioning brain cells. Chemotherapy is one of the most common forms of treatment for many cancers including brain cancer. Chemotherapy uses drugs designed to “kill” the cancer cells. Chemotherapy is very effective at doing so but in the process can damage normal cells. Side effects of chemotherapy include fatigue, hair loss and mouth sores. There are more less common treatments such as hyperthermia (heat treatment), immunotherapy (insertion of immune cells that are intended to kill certain cancer cells) and steroids.