Having cancer isn’t something anyone plans for in their life, but with Radiation Therapists, can be looked at from a different perspective not only from the patient but also for their family. Sometimes radiation therapy, also known as radiation oncology, can be used as the cure for certain types of cancer but in some cases one form of cancer can be cured but can also cause many other problems to the patient.
Radiation therapy is a form of high energy radiation that is used to shrink tumors in a patient’s body. There are two major types of radiation therapy, which are, internal and external. Internal treatment consists of radioactive material that is placed inside the body near the cancer cell. This procedure is also called Brachytherapy. With external therapy, beams are emitted through an outside machine to go through the body. Radiation therapy is used on more than half of all cancer patients. Some of the reasons that patients with cancer will get this treatment would be to prevent cancer in the brain to spread throughout the body, which is also known as metastases. Other situations would be if the tumor was pushing on the spinal cord, if it the tumor is near the esophagus or if it might start to grow in with a bone. With almost every patient, surgery will also be done along with the radiation therapy to decrease some of the main causes from the particular cancer that the patient might be suffering from (National Cancer Institute, 2010).
Due to the fact that every patient is different, the National Cancer Institute, has shown the different ways the procedures are planned and what other machines and techniques are used to help treat the patients. One interesting thing that can help a doctor to find the exact spot of the tumor w...
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...nges occurred about ten months after diagnoses. In the next eight months, improvement was so remarkable that the patient was slowly taken off the anti- Parkinsonism medications. After the long 18 months, the patient was completely free of encephalopathy and Parkinsonism. This patient was the “first case of early-delayed radiation induced parkinsonism in the pediatric population” (Bernard, G. & Chouinard, S, 2009).
So, as shown in the case study, we can see that radiation therapy sometimes can hurt a patient instead of helping them. Mostly, this will not be the case but it can happen. Radiation therapy is very important to a cancer patient and hopefully will cure them from their life threating disease. In the end, any kind help can relieve the patient from either anxiety of having cancer or even just giving them a relaxing feeling of knowing they are getting help.
2. External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) which is usually offered when the lung cancer is either considered to be primary, or when it has metastasized (spread to other organs). This form of treatment uses a linear accelerator machine to focus a precise beam of radiation on a given area of the body for a precise period of time to kill off cancerous cells.
There are essentially three main types of cancer treatments; surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Surgery allows doctors to effectively remove tumors from a clear plane. Chemotherapy uses drugs to treat the tumor; but often the drugs affect other healthy cells in the process. Using radiation as a treatment can be either precise or vague. Many health stigmas can come from the vague forms of radiation or conventional radiation therapy. Conventional radiation treats both the unhealthy and healthy cells, therefore exposing healthy cells to harmful radiation (Radiation Oncology, 2011, p.6). When healthy cells are exposed to gamma radiation they are also exposed to ionizing radiation. The ionization can cause “breakage of chemical bonds or oxidization (addition of oxygen atoms)” in a cell; the main impact of this is on a cell’s DNA, if two strands of DNA break it can result in “mutations, chromosome aberrations, ...
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, respiratory distress, and a number of other complications. Tumors were removed, but metastases had formed, and the cancer returned quickly. In modern day surgery, namely laser surgery, these difficulties do not occur as readily. There are four basic ways to use surgery. One way is a diagnostic biopsy. This is a technique that involves removing part of the tumor, in order to test for malignancy. Another technique is surgery that removes the primary tumor. A third technique is removal of lymphatic tumors and metastases, which can help reduce the recurrence of cancer. The fourth technique is a combination of surgeries to detect and treat a malignant or benign tissue mass (1).
Radiation therapy is a complex treatment plan to treat cancer in patients. Its treatment can be used alone or in conjunction with surgery or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy is delivered by a team of individuals who specialize in the treatment of cancer. There are several ways in which the radiation can be delivered to the patient with specialized equipment. Radiation therapy is an exciting field of study that can be beneficial to patients who are affected by cancer.
...rapy and surgery, its used only if the cancer comes back. Surgery is the treatment of injuries of the body by incision with instruments. Depending on what stage the cancer is in, the patient may need multiple surgeries to completely treat the cancer. For the later stages in the cancer, surgery is the most common treatment. The option to have surgery depends on the size and the location of the cancer. With all this being said, if the cancer is found early enough, there is a better chance of it getting cured. Some patients decide to use either chemotherapy or radiotherapy along with surgery, just to be safe. “For many patients, surgery will be combined with other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or hormone therapy” (Cancer Treatment Centers Of America parag.3). By combining these treatments, there is a better chance of the cancer being cured.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the diagnosis and staging of cancer, complications of cancer, the side effects of the cancer treatment, and methods to lessen the physical and psychological effects of cancer.
...effects that can come with chemotherapy such as nausea, vomiting, hair loss, fatigue, mouth sores, and more. Radiation therapy is pretty bad but not as painful with side effects. Side effects for radiation therapy are coughing, fever, fullness of chest, soreness and scaring. Many times surgery is not an option but when is it is one of the best options due to the fact there are less side effects and no strenuous treatment. One of the reasons cancer is such a bad thing is because the treatment is not good but research is taking place and working to get more effective.
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 patients often wonder if going through treatments like chemotherapy and radiation are worth the risk of the side effects, in addition to the cancerous side effects. They feel that they can’t enjoy or relax in what a short amount of time they have left because they are bedridden from the nausea and pain that treatments put them through. Patients tell their loved ones to just let them die so long as they don’t have to go through any more pain. Those who are too old, are unable to recover from the effects, or are just too far in the grips of cancer, should refuse the more harsh treatments like chemo and radiation. On the positive side, refusing treatments after a certain point can save their families from the stress and cost of hospital bills. If caught early enough, patients can opt for safer and easier routes to getting rid of cancer like surgery or by doing a stem cell transplant.
Physical therapy is always full of surprises, from new advancements in technology to new and improved therapeutic techniques. Although there are fun games and new technology that physical therapists can do with patients, the main struggle for physical therapists is to motivate their patients to complete their therapy exercises both in the clinic and in the outside world. This problem is very frustrating because the doctors who work at the clinic constantly push patients to complete their therapy so that they can heal; however, when patients are stubborn and reluctant to their treatment, yet constantly complain of pain, doctors must spend more time convincing them to do the therapy rather than completing the therapy itself.
Radiation therapists work closely with patients to fight cancer. According to Health Care Careers, Oncologists, Dosimetrists and nurses are some of the professionals that a radiation therapist works with while caring for a cancer patient. This group of professionals will determine a specialized treatment plan. The first step usually includes a CT scan performed by a radiologist to find the exact area that needs to be targeted with x-rays. Next, the therapist uses a special machine that emits radiation called a Linear Accelerator. They use this machine during a treatment called external beam therapy. During this process, the Linear Accelerator will project x-rays at targeted cancer cells or tumors. Another therapist will be in a different room monitoring the patient’s viral signs until the procedure is over. The external therapy l...
Ever since the eighth grade I have been passionate about becoming a radiation therapist. I credit this to a project in which I was required to research two professions in preparation for acceptance into a university. For this project, radiation therapy was suggested to me by a family friend whom was also the administrative director of a cancer center in Miami, Florida. Radiation therapy offers me an opportunity to help individuals who are at one of the most vulnerable and toughest periods of their life. In doing so I am able to be part of a lifesaving team which is very gratifying. Additionally, radiation therapy is a very technically demanding field that combines physics and medicine; two categories of which I am very interested in. In order to learn more about radiation therapy, I began volunteering while in high school at the C. Gordon Griffith Cancer Center at North Shore Medical Center in Miami, Florida. While there, I was able to shadow the dosimetrist as she planned treatments as well as see those treatments in action while shadowing the radiation therapists. When I started attending college at the University of South Florida, I became a volunteer at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer
...ink you would see a large survival rate or life span. The only problem with these theories of the use of psychological therapy is that there is truly no way to know how these treatments help the patient, because there is no machine or medicine to measure the success of the therapy being given. Whether or not you can have conclusive evidence that these types of therapies are beneficial, they need to be into heavy consideration when approaching a cancer victim, because they might just save that patients life.
The topic that I will be focusing on for this assignment is on the screening of lung cancer, since this is one of the most controversial debates all across the world. The significance of this topic is that when it comes to lung cancer screening, many individuals may or may not abide by it. There are many reasons to why individuals may not want to have their screening done for lung cancer. The top two reasons are that the screening itself is expensive and secondly, the results that they get from the screening may not be accurate. Imagine, if the results came up as a positive, for the ones who really do not have lung cancer, the amount of pain, time and money that they have put into the curing of lung cancer, is painful. At the same, time it is not fair for them to go through this much, when they actually do not have lung cancer. In this paper, I will discuss how lung cancer screening is a controversial issue and why it impacts us as a society and what problems that the family members, friends and medical doctors have to face if something does goes wrong.. Here is a portion of my essay that will appear on the final copy of my essay.
The energy in ionizing radiation can cause chemical changes in the the cells that can lead to damaging them. Most of the cells can either permanently or temporarily become abnormal or they can just die. Radiation can cause cancer by damaging the DNA in the body. The damage of the cells can also depend on how long the organs are exposed (environmental protection agency, 2017, unknown). If someone has many exposures at one time that radiation in the body keeps adding on. As well as if its only a little bit of exposure in on day and years later you get exposed again it keeps adding on the radiation will never leave the body. Having radiation in your body doesn’t affect you right away but as you get older it starts to show and you feel it. Chronic exposure is when someone is exposed many time for long periods. When this happens the type of effects it will carry is having harmful generic change, cancer, tumors, and even cataracts. Partial health effects can also depend on if it was internal or external exposure. Internal exposure is when either by drinking, breathing, eating and even an injection cause radiation to get inside your body. External exposure is when taking an x-ray out of your body and letting it go through letting all the energy go as it goes in (environmental protection agency, 2017, unknown). In the dental world radiation gets into the patients when we take x-rays on there teeth. In order to avoid to much radiation on them we put a lead apron on them and make sure to cover their thyroid which is the most common way of getting cancer when taking an x-ray. When we take the x-ray we stand behind a wall at least 6 feet away to avoid ourself from getting