There have been numerous types of treatment since the first documentation of cancer. Surgery, chemo-therapy and radiation therapy are the three best-known today. There are also some exciting developments in genome research that may help us treat these diseases in a more efficient way. The oldest effective treatment known to us is surgery, which Ancient Egyptians used for early tumor removal.
Surgical “treatments” are often the first to be considered because resecting, or cutting out a tumor, removes the offending growth immediately. This is helpful if it is blocking an organ or is causing pain and logically it seems to be a reliable method. Unfortunately, it does not always stop cancer from returning. If the mass of malignant cells
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The three main goals of chemo in cancer are (1) to cure, the disease if possible, (2) to control the spread of the disease or (3) to ease the pain and suffering of a patient with an advanced stage cancer in what is called palliative care. (Cancer.org, 2017) Chemotherapy works by killing any cells in the process of mitosis, which leaves cancer extremely vulnerable due to its rapid division. Unfortunately, chemo affects healthy cells too. The more rapidly dividing cells, like the ones that make up our hair follicles and stomach lining, are severely impacted which is why a lot of patients experience hair loss and nausea. So a big problem with chemotherapy is that many patients will experience nausea, hair loss and other very unpleasant side effects (because of the naturally fast division in parts of the body) and drugs might not work alone. Chemo-therapy is often used in tandem with “radiation”.
Radiation therapy, also known as irradiation or x-ray therapy, uses high-energy particles or waves to destroy cancer cells. Ionizing radiation used in cancer treatment ionizes the atoms, effectively obliterating the cells and DNA so that cells cannot further divide. “Radiation can be given alone or used with other treatments, such as surgery and chemotherapy. In fact, certain drugs are known to be radio-sensitizers. This means
Chemotherapy is the most commonly used form of treatment used to fight cancer. Over half of all patients that are diagnosed with cancer receive this form of treatment. There are several different methods that this drug can be administered. It can be given by IV, oral drugs, rectally or all three can be used at the same time. Many of the chemotherapy treatments lead to hair loss during the course of the treatment (www.medicalonline.com, 1997).
From surgery to radium exposure to such extremes as radiation therapy, as doctors’ knowledge of the varying types of cancer, and the expansion of medical research regarding cancer has changed, so has the preferred method of treatment. Doctors and researchers dedicated to studying cancer have led to a greater understanding of cancer development; consequently the development of treatments and cures that are more effective, less harmful, have fewer side effects, and in some cases serve to prevent the spread of cancer.
Radiation therapy is commonly used as a proven and widely accepted way to treat cancer. The American Cancer Society attests to this because of the extensive research they have done in this field. High-energy radiation damages a cell’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). When a cell divides, its DNA splits. According to the Mayo Clinic, radiation therapy is sometimes given with curative intent (that is, with the hope that the treatment will cure cancer, either by eliminating a tumor, preventing cancer recurrence, or by both). In such cases, radiation therapy may be used alone or in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, or all three. Radiation therapy may also be given with palliative intent. Palliative treatments are not intended to cure. Instead, they are meant to relieve certain symptoms and reduce
When first considering cancer treatment plans, it helps to understand your general options. Types of cancer treatment can be categorized into four modalities: Medical, surgical, radiation, and chemotherapy. Examples of medical options include chemical medicines, immunotherapy, and biological/endocrine therapy. Many surgical options can be minimally invasive and utilize modern technologies to better suit the patient's personalized treatment plan. While you may have heard of radiation and chemotherapy, you may not realize the recent advancements that improve these therapies, creating healthy, successful outcomes every day.
cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Radiation therapy is a treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Lastly targeted therapy, is the treatment that uses drugs and other substances to attack cancer cells. Some of these treatments are standard and others are being clinically tested in clinical trials. Patients may enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their cancer treatment. Follow-up tests may be needed.
The word cancer comes from the word Karkinos which is greek language. Physician hippocrates used this word to describe carcinoma tumors sometime between the periods 460-379 B.C. Although there were many accounts and evidence of cancer before, which were found in mummies in ancient Egypt during the period 1600 B.C. The oldest evidence of cancer was found in 1500 B.C in a tomb in egypt. Cancer treatment were non existence during those days. There were small palliative treatments which relieved pain and suffering temporarily. However we still use similar surgical treatment for surfaced tumors today that was used during that period. Early hippocrates also discovered that cancer returned after surgery. Cancer treatments has evolved tremendously
This treatment may be very aggressive but, when it comes to cancer, being thorough is of utmost importance.
Chemotherapy is used to describe cancer-killing drug and can be used to cure, shrink, prevent cancer from spreading, and relieve cancer symptoms. Chemotherapy can be given by injection into muscle or skin, into artery, IV into veins, pills taken by mouth, shots into fluids around the spinal cord or brain. Radiation therapy is the use of high energy X-rays or other particles can be used to destroy cancer cells. These medicines travel through blood to the entire body and can damage and kill some normal cells such as those found in bone marrow, hair and the lining of the digestive tract. Bone marrow contains cells that produce white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Damage to bone marrow negatively affects the hematological values which can lead to cancer. When this damage occurs, there can be side effects like infections, fatigue, loss of weight, loss of appetite, pain, mouth sores, dry mouth, hair loss. These side effects are similar to symptoms of
Chemotherapy uses drugs that are designed to slow or stop the division of cancer cells. It targets cells that are in the process of dividing into two new cells and kills them, some drugs destroy the cell's control center and kills the cell, and some disrupts the chemical processes in cell division. Side effects of chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and low red blood cell numbers. Because chemotherapy kills rapidly dividing cells like cancer, other normal cells that divide rapidly are also killed. Hair, bone marrow, and skin cells are constantly dividing to grow more hair, produce red blood cells, and replace dead skin cells. Radiation therapy uses targeted energy like x rays or radioactive substances to kill or shrink tumors. There are three types of radiation therapy delivery methods. External beam radiation therapy uses an external machine that directs radiation onto cancer cells. Internal radiation therapy uses radioactive material that is placed directly or near a tumor with a catheter. Systemic radiation therapy uses a radioactive substance that is swallowed or injected and travels through the bloodstream and locates and kills cancer cells. Side effects of radiation therapy depend on which part of the body the treatment is applied, some common general side effects are fatigue, and itching, blistering, or peeling of the skin. In the head and neck it can cause tooth decay, and mouth and gum sores, in the chest it can cause radiation pneumonitis, which causes a cough and fever, and radiation fibrosis, which is scarring of the lungs caused by untreated radiation pneumonitis. Radiation therapy causes side effects because high doses of radiation is applied to areas of the body which kill cancer cells, but also damages healthy cells near the treatment
tumors are treated but if surgery is not a viable treatment radiation can also be used.
Leukemia most common treatments are: Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, and Bone marrow transplantation, and then there is also Biological therapy. In chemotherapy, patients take one or more anticancer drugs by mouth or, intravenously through IV therapy. In some cases, doctors need to inject the drugs directly into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. Chemo can cause side effects, like losing your hair, nausea, fatigue, or easy bruising, depending on the drug. The side effects usually go away progressively between treatments or after treatments stop.
These days the treatment of cancer has taken all encompassing ways. The doctors can opt for removing the tumors surgically, injecting the chemicals to destroy the cancer cells or utilize the radiation therapy. Various experiments are carried out clinically to aim the cancer cells in a better manner. Though, there are people who promote a different path of treating the cancer, the natural way.
Surgery is the oldest type of treatment for cancer. In its earlier use, surgery was not as successful as it is today. This was due to the difficulties involved with the anesthesias, excessive blood loss,
Several methods such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have been used to treat cancers. The cancer patients who are not helped
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.