Radiation therapy is one of the most popular modern treatments for cancer. As a matter of fact nearly two-thirds of patients diagnosed with cancer receive radiation therapy treatment. It is very successful in treating common cancers such as breast cancer. A statistic taken by the Cancer Treatment Center of America from 2000 to 2011 states the mortality rate of breast cancer treated by radiation therapy within 6 months of initial diagnoses is 95%. However some of the side effects may include fatigue, nausea, fibrosis, diarrhea, bleeding, hair loss, memory loss, infertility, and rarely a second cancer. Also for those without medical insurance radiation therapy may cost up to $50,000. Radiation therapy is the most developed and effective treatment …show more content…
The earliest description of cancer was found in ancient Egyptian literature. The ancient Egyptian text dates all the way back to 3000 years ago. Though the document never uses the term cancer. This document, known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, is a copy of an ancient Egyptian book for trauma surgery. It describes 8 cases of breast cancer that were cauterized with something called a firedrill. However these cases can not be technically confirmed. The first ancient confirmed case was not discovered until 2014. The skeleton of a young man from ancient Egypt, around approximately 1200 BC, was discovered in North Sudan and is now confirmed to have had cancer. Researchers are fascinated to see cancer take roots in the far distant past. Cancer is commonly seen as a modern disease caused by modern technology. However these findings may contribute to the extinction of that theory. The word cancer itself originates from ancient Greece. First used by the Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the “Father …show more content…
However something it has in common with lung cancer is that when treated only about 50% of cases are actually seeking curing the disease. Instead they attempt to improve life quality. Radiation therapy for brain cancer patients is commonly used after a biopsy, or following surgical resection of a tumor, to destroy any microscopic tumor cells left behind. It may also be an option for unresectable brain tumors or metastatic brain tumors.The specifics of your brain cancer radiation therapy plan will be based on several factors, including the type and size of the brain tumor and the extent of disease. External beam radiation is commonly used for brain cancer. The area radiated typically includes the tumor and an area surrounding the tumor. For metastatic brain tumors, radiation is sometimes given to the entire
Somehow not only drugs but other option to treats tumour for targeted therapy oncologist will used radiation which radioactive rays are used to cure or palliate cancers. The objective is to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to the malignant tissue, leaving healthy, surrounding tissues unharmed. Radiation therapy is used to treat many cancers, including cancers of bone, brain, breast, cervix, lymphoid tissues, and uterus. By then, from diagnosis through end of life, nurses play an obscure role in enhancing the quality of life of the patients especially which has undergone the treatment or newly diagnosed. Nurses are in a unique position to manipulate both the physiologic
Radiation therapy can be used anywhere in the body to treat any kind of cancer. Depending on what type of radiation therapy, it can have some side effects. The most common ones include fatigue, hair loss near the treated area, and skin darkening in the area exposed to a beam of radiation. ("Radiation Therapy for Cancer,” 1) There are also safety concerns that patients have when they are treated with radiation therapy. Many people that receive radiation therapy treatment, worry about exposing family and love ones to radiation, as well as the side effects. Radiation effects on the normal tissues are divided into acute and chronic effects (Schreiber). Acute effects occur during the course of therapy and during the post therapy period (approximately 2-3 weeks after the completion of a course of irradiation) (Schreiber).
Paleopathological findings indicate the presence of tumors through animals well before prehistoric times. Steven Hajdu explains that written descriptions of cancer date back to the Egypt, Byzantine and other Indo-European civilizations where medicine men attempted to cure it using herbal remedies and did not hesitate to use concoctions of iron, copper, sulfur and mercury (1), elements known for its toxic nature. Failing to treat the diseases because of both the lack of knowledge of the human anatomy and DNA or proper equipment, they would claim that the wrath of God had struck upon the ill patient. Medicine Men of this time also did not strive to further study cancer since mortality rates were low due to lack of food, clean water and constant
This type of therapy is often used as a means to treat hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, bone metastases from prostate and breast tumors, as well as other types of cancer and diseases. It can be used alone or in combination with other therapeutic means of medicine, such as surgery or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy is used in the treatment of approximately 40% to 60% of patients who are diagnosed with cancer (Errors in Radiation Therapy, 2009). In many cases, the
Topic #4: Treatments like chemo and radiation are a must. Chemotherapy is a treatment with cancer-killing drugs that are given through an IV. The drugs travel through the bloodstream attacking all cancerous cells. Chemo has many side effects, most common hair lost, vomiting, and loss of appetite, low white blood cells, and fatigue. Although some of the side effects are alike when getting radiation, like fatigue, low white blood cell, some are different like chest pain and lung problem but this is totally different from chemo. Radiation is a highly targeted and highly effective way to destroy cancer cells that remain in the breast. Radiation therapy uses a special kind of high-energy beam to destroy any cancer cells left behind.
“Never stop doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.” A phrase so simple yet filled with meaningful words, a phrase that I try to abide by. Growing up in a small city in Syria, I had never imagined one day I would immigrate to the United States. But my father desired a better life for his family like many others before him. Coming from a small city, where opportunities were limited, to the land of opportunities where dreams come to reality.
Today, radiation oncologists spend most of their time trying to determine the correct way to treat different forms of tumors and cancer. The radiation oncologist monitors progress and oversees much of the treatment. A radiation team comes together to help find the best possible treatment for the patient. The radiation team consists of the radiation oncologist, radiation oncology nurse, medical physicist, medical dosimetrist, and a radiation therapist. After they formulate a plan, the radiation oncologist must convey the information directly to their patients. This part of the job may become very emotional and requires a comforting personality. The radiation oncologist will then help the patient begin the treatment regimen and will track progress along the
The first mention of breast cancer was documented in Egypt in 1600 B.C. It was considered a mysterious disease with no cure to it. In The Edwin Smith Papyrus, there are eight cases of tumors or ulcers in the breast. During these times, the people believed it was caused by a lack of sexual activity and physical injuries. Because of the fact that people believed there was no cure, no one did anything to try to solve the problem.
The National Cancer Institute states that radiation therapy, “uses high-energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells.” Radiation uses X-rays and gamma rays to shrink the tumors. Because cancer is rapidly growing cells, the cells need to be shrunk. By using radiation, the cancer cells’ DNA gets damaged, when the cell is damaged enough, it will stop growing and eventually die. The negative side to radiation is that it may also damage normal and healthy cells. Like chemotherapy, radiation can be given out in different doses depending on the type of cancer, size, location, etc. Besides the common treatments like radiation, there are newer, effective treatments like
Radiation therapy is the ionization of atoms in tissues resulting in formation of highly reactive radicals in a well-defined, restricted volume (1). In other words, ionizing radiations are used to eradicate tumors and at the same time preserve structure and function of normal tissue. A limitation is prevented from being a problem. If bone marrow or neuronal cells are destroyed or injured, they do not regenerate. However, with radiation therapy, these cells are often saved from injury or destruction, unless the tumor is infecting bone marrow or neuronal cells. Today, radiation therapy is the most popular type of cancer therapy in use. It is used to treat one-half to two-thirds of all cancers, which translates to more than ten percent of the population
Radiation therapy can help us fight off cancer, and reduce the pain caused by cancer. Radiation can also be given to a patient before a surgery to help either improve the cure rates or to make the surgery easier. It could even replace the need of surgery all
Cancer isn't a new disease and it has been affecting people around the world, the name came from a Greek word karkinos , the first cancer to be known is bone cancer found on a mummy back in 1600 B.C. in ancient Egypt and the record say the there was to treatment for it.
While cancer is referred to today as the "Modern plague" and treated through radiation and chemotherapy, thousands of years ago, the Egyptians applied arsenic paste and ate uteruses to combat what the Greeks described as "carcinoma" or a crablike bulge (David and Zimmerman 2010, 728). Although cancer was relatively rare prior to the sixteenth century, there appears to be some archaeological record of tumor masses in the bodies and writings of the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In Egypt, the Papyrus Ebers, a compilation of illnesses written by Egyptian physicians in 3000 BC, referred to breast tumors by their similarity in smell to roasted meat and portrayed cancer as a bulge with no treatment, except for ineffective knife lesions and magical incantations (Hajdu 2011, 1097-1099). In Greece, physicians theorized humans were composed of 4 humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and the evil black bile Hippocrates believed manifested itself in the formation of cancer (Hajdu 2011, 1098). While archaeologists and chemists reject the black bile cause of cancer, they both agree that the rarity of cancer in antiquity can be attributed to the low life expectancy and lack of environmental mutagens evident in ancient lifestyles (David and Zimmerman 2010, 728-731). Cancer is the consequence of the body 's inability to control the division of malignant cells, commonly exhibited when cells grow old, damaged, and need to be replaced. As one gets older and is exposed to carcinogens, such as
Cancer is a serious and common disease in which cells start to develop and grow uncontrollably and frequently cause the death in people,who are infected, in a great rate depending on the type of the cancer. Cancer is not a disease that originated in current years, but it existed among people from long ago. The history and lineages of cancer dates back to around three thousand years before the common era in Egypt, which was bone cancer and its evidence is found in mummies and fossilized bones. Cancer is described in a book of ancient Egypt, which is about tauma surgery, and the disease is referred to as carcinos and carcinoma by Greek physician Hippocrates. However, the word cancer is Latin and translated from the Greek word by the Roman physician,
In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.