Approach to Care of Cancer

Introduction

Cancer is characterized by an abnormal cell growth that can invade all body parts. For long cancer has been known to be a terminal disease especially if it is not noticed in its early stages. Not all types of cancer spread to other body parts, there cancers that re considered to be benign; meaning they do spread to other body parts. Cancer symptoms can be change in bowel movement, bleeding abnormally and lumps in any part of the body. Cancer is not only a physical illness, it is also psychological and individual with this disease require social and moral support. The above symptoms may not be solely isolate to cancer, they might also indicate other diseases. There are various causes of cancer and some of them include poor dieting, obesity, smoking of tobacco, exposure to environmental pollution and radiation. Use of tobacco has been reported to cause up to 22 % of death by cancer.

Infections such as hepatitis and HIV can also lead to cancer. Genes also play a role in the spread of cancer. There is 5 to 10% chance of inheriting cancer genes from one’s parents. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is one of the ways of preventing cancer. Eating a healthy diet that is balanced while avoiding smoking are some of those ways. Eating too much processed foods can be risky as well as not getting vaccinated from infectious diseases. Out of the ninety million people that had cancer, eight million died. Per year more than fourteen million patients are diagnosed with cancer. In men cancer mostly affect prostate gland, lungs and stomach. In females cancer affects breast, cervix and lungs. In the year2015, one hundred and sixty five children were reported to have cancer.

Cancer diagnosis

Low or High levels of several elements in the human body could be a sign of cancer. Doctors must therefore carry out laboratory based tests on blood, urine, and on the other body fluids to diagnosis the cancer. Though, there are several abnormal laboratory results that are not a cancer signal, so doctors could not rely entirely on laboratory examinations to diagnose cancer. Physicians should use a number of tools to diagnose cancer accurately, such as diagnostic imaging processes that could be performed in these ways. CT scan, in which the radiographic device is connected with the computer and creates full images of a person’s internal organisms. The difference on the images will specify the problems for the doctor. Mill is an alternative way, where a magnet connected to the machine takes pictures of a human body (Garrido, 2016). Images are published these images helps in diagnosing the reported difficulty. In many cases, doctors need to perform a biopsy to get a clear result. A biopsy doctor tries to remove a sample of diseased tissue that carries a pathologist who adheres to a microscope and if you have cancer. Tissues can be removed in different ways, for example, a fluid or tissue could be replaced by a doctor, and could also be removed to surgery.

Stages of cancer

Although there are numerous types of cancer, however, scientist agrees that there are four main stages. The first stage is zero stage. At this stage, the tumor is detected in the area where it first appeared, but is not yet dispersed, to influence the surrounding tissues. Cancer can be treated with traditional methods. In the second stage, the cancer circulates in neighboring tissues, but no more than that which is no longer dissipated in the system, for example in the blood. At this point, patient ask the doctor to start treatment immediately. In the third stage, they are widely known as regional cancer dispersal and suggest that the cancer spreads significantly in the surrounding tissues. At this time, doctors require instant treatment with surgery in most cases. In the final or fourth stage, when the cancer has feast to other parts of the body. It is also called as distant spread or advance cancer and is much hard to cure. However, it is essential to remember that the cure at this point, it is not possible to recover (Imran, F. S., Andrews, 2016).

Complications of Cancer

Cancer could have many complications:

Pain: Though not all types of cancer are paining. In several cases, people have criticized of serious pain, especially at the secondary level. These pains can be treated with drugs and other conventional pain relief methods. Chemical alterations in all parts of the body. Cancer is present in the body’s chemical balance and could mostly increase the likelihood of great complications. These chemical disproportions may occur in some symptoms, such as extreme thirst, confusion, frequent urination and constipation.

Weight loss could causes illness in the body. This is due to the cancer cells that are taken by siblings who are in normal cells and are therefore deprived of their food. In majority of cases, patients have no appetite and this is one of the key factors leading to weight loss. In some cases, doctors have attempted to use an artificial breast, which was done by injecting food into the stomach, but this was not successful.

Describing the Tactic to Care of Cancer Staging and Diagnosis

The treatment of cancer is based on the physical tests, biopsies, blood tests, and diagnostic based tests for images for example CT scan, x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging. After a person is identified with cancer, the next step is to figure out the stage of cancer. The process of staging includes a classification of the level of cancer growth. This exercise is important because it informs about the therapeutic measurements that would be carried out. The most used staging system in the world is TNM system. The TNM system identifies the tumors according to the size (T), amount of metastasis towards regional lymph nodes (N), and degrees of metastasis to some other parts of the body (M). Furthermore, the anatomical setting of the system may also take into account several prognostic based aspects, for example serum or histological tumor markers.

In TNM system, the degree of the main tumor is evaluated and assigned a value between Tx, A, Tis, Ti, T2, T3, and T4, that depends on the dimension of the tumor. The presence or absence of a tumor in the regional lymph-nodes is evaluated and the value Nx, No, N1, N2 or N3 is assigned, according to the amount of diffusion. Conversely, distant metastases are estimated and the values ​​of Mx, Mo and Mi are used to indicate the degree of metastasis. The Staging is an important stage in the cancer treatment process. For example, if the configuration is local based, the interventions that are useful in the treatment are surgery or radiation. If cancer has progressed and metastasized to some more parts in the body, a procedure that happens on the lymphatic system and blood circulation, chemotherapy is deliberated as an effective therapeutic tactic. Most cancers are in the fourth phase, which is the very severe, while in certain types cancers, in the stage or in which the tumor is located.

Describing the Approach to Care of Cancer

Unlike to any other chronic disease, cancer has some side effects that are usually psychological or physical in nature. Some of the side-effects of cancer are infertility, diabetes, and hypothyroidism. The main reason of the cause of Hypothyroidism is secretion of thyroid hormone due to radiation that kills the thyroid gland. Patients with hypothyroidism exhibit cold intolerance, dry skin and reduced metabolism. Though, hypothyroidism could be controlled by drugs that stimulate thyroid hormone administration such as iodine or thyroxine or levotyroxine. Radiation could further causes harm to teeth. Which is due to the reason that high radiation medicines of the neck could affect the enamel, which increases the risk of developing diseases related to rubber. Radiation can destroy salivary salivary cells, causing a condition called agranulocytosis, in which patients receive dry mouth (Stewart, B. W. K. P., & Wild, C. P, 2015).

Corticosteroids, for example dexamethasone and prednisone, are among the significant agents which are used in the treatment of this disease. These agents are further used to reduce the inflammation associated with cancer, increase the patient’s appetite, alleviate the disease and treats the disease by itself. Though, these steroids cause a rise in blood glucose levels, which leads to diabetes. Patients with diabetes are prescribed insulin regimen. The Infertility occurs in several extreme cases. Studies have shown that those chemotherapeutic agents which are normally alkaline in nature, for example cyclophosphamide, destroys the ovaries. Whereas in men, the practice of chemotherapeutic drugs, for example the methyl, vinca alkaloid, and platinum, affects the reproduction system. Preservation of fertility could be achieved by freezing embryos and the ovarian tissue.

Cancer treatment could also significantly disturb the memory of patients, preventing their cognitive abilities, which leads to illnesses for example amnesia. This can be a big problem, particularly among learners who might begin to experience learning difficulties. Fatigue is also complication caused by radiation and chemotherapy.

References

Brennan, M. E., Gormally, J. F., Butow, P., Boyle, F. M., & Spillane, A. J. (2014). Survivorship care plans in cancer: a systematic review of care plan outcomes. British journal of cancer, 111(10), 1899-1908.

Imran, F. S., Andrews, C., Doerner, K., Heatherington, B., Hodes, S., Pictor, N. M., … & Jamshed, S. (2016, January). Survey of cancer survivors’ understanding of their cancer care and follow-up plan. In ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings (Vol. 34, No. 3_suppl, p. 51).

Stewart, B. W. K. P., & Wild, C. P. (2015). World cancer report 2014. World.