Each year more than 8 billion people are diagnosed with cancer all around the world. Everyone knows that cancer is a disease but what exactly is it? Cancer is not just one disease, there are actually more than 100 different types of cancer. Cells from any part of the body can become cancer and spread. Some types of cancers are more common than others. In order to understand what cancer is, it’s important to know how healthy cells function. Healthy human cells grow and divide in order to produce more cells when the body needs them. When the cells becomes damaged, it dies and gets replaced with a new cell; this process is called apoptosis. Unlike healthy cells, cancer causes the cells to grow out of control. The damaged cells survive and the …show more content…
The human skin is the body’s largest organ. Healthy skin protects internal organs from injury, controls body temperature, protects the body from germs/infections, and controls how much water we lose. Melanoma can start anywhere on the human body, but is more common to start on the back and chest of men, the legs of women, and the neck and face for both sexes. One of the main reasons people get Melanoma is because they are exposed to ultraviolet radiation. Not only can you get it from sunlight, but also from tanning lamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths. In order to understand skin cancer it is good to know the three layers of skin; epidermis, dermis, and subcutis. The epidermis is the very thin top layer of the skin. Inside the epidermis there are cells called melanocytes, these are the cells that give our skin color. Melanocytes are also the cells that become melanoma (skin cancer). The dermis is the middle layer of the skin that contains hair follicles, sweat glands, blood vessels, and nerves. Last is the subcutis which contains the protein and fat that helps the body control the temperature. Signs of melanoma is usually spotting on the skin that is usually brown or black, but could be pink, tan, or white. If a person is still in early-stage melanomas, then they could be treated with only surgery. If the melanomas is more advanced, they must go through surgery, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, …show more content…
Kidney cancer is exactly what it sounds like, cancer in your kidneys. Everyone has a pair of kidneys (unless they were removed) located in the upper abdominal area against back muscles on both sides of the body. Purpose of kidneys is the same as the purpose of a filter; to filter out waste products from the blood. Renal cell cancer (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer. Someone who has RCC could have one tumor in a kidney, two tumors in one kidney, or even tumors in both of the kidneys at the same time. Signs of kidney cancer include blood in the urine, lower back pain, a lump on lower back, fatigue, and anemia. RCC is usually treated by either surgery, ablation therapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy. When surgery is done to treat kidney cancer, either the whole kidney is taken out (radical nephrectomy) or a piece of the kidney is taken out (partial nephrectomy). Surgery is a must when it comes to kidney cancer, without it the survival rate is very low. Removing the kidney can give patients more time to live and also ease pain and bleeding. When a person is too sick to have surgery ablation is done, which is the process of heating the tumor to destroy the cancer cells. Radiation therapy is another treatment that is done if the patient is too sick to have surgery. The common purpose of radiation therapy is to ease symptoms
Melanocytes, embryologically derived from the neural crest, are distributed in the epidermis and thus are found throughout the skin. They produce a brown pigment known as melanin and are responsible for racial variation in skin color and also the color of moles. Malignant degeneration of the melanocyte gives rise to the tumor, melanoma, of which there are four subtypes. These are: superficial spreading, nodular, lentigo maligna, and acral lentiginous melanomas, accounting for 70%, 15% to 30%, 4% to 10%, and 2% to 8% of cases, respectively. Malignant melanoma may develop anywhere on the body. In men, it is most common on the trunk. In women, it is most common on the back or legs. The subtype also may influence where the tumor develops, lentigo melanoma is more common on the face while acral lentiginous melanoma is more common on the palms of the hand, soles of the feet, or in the nail beds.
What is skin cancer ? first, Skin is the largest organ of the body . it gives our body protection from harms, injuries and infections. It also organize the body temperature and dispose of waste substances through the glands . out layer of the skin is called the epidermis and the layer underneath is known as the dermis . Skin cancer is type of disease where malignant cancer cells are to be found the outer layer of a person's skin and is the uncontrolled development of the irregular skin cells .It occurs when unrepaired DNA damage to skin cells caused by ultraviolet radiation from sunlight or genetic defects, that lead the skin cells to duplicate rapidly and form malignant tumors. there are three main types of skin cancer which are basal
Malignant Melanoma is a type of malignant cancer that affects the melanocytes. A melanocyte produces the pigmentation in our skin and melanin gives us the color to our skin. These cells occur in the skin and can be found in other parts of the body. It is important to realize that melanoma can begin in any part of the body that can contain a melanocyte. Melanoma is considered less common than other skin cancers. It is a cancer that can be very dangerous if not detected early. Although in most cases it is diagnosed in time and can be cured. Many people are diagnosed with this cancer and it is said that 160,000 cases are diagnosed a year. ( ). In men a common site is on their back and for a woman is on their legs.
Melanoma is a very serious type of skin cancer. The cancer starts in skin cells known melanocytes. Even though melanoma primarily affects skin cells, it also can grow in the eyes (uveal melanoma). Melanocytes are made up of melanin, which provides skin color and protects the deeper layers of the skin from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.
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).
Skin cancer is a disease in which malignant cancer cells are found in the outer layer of the human skin. This particular cancer is one of the most common cancers among the U.S. population, affecting and spreading over more than one million people a year. “Skin cancer is categorized into two separate groups being; malignant melanomas and non-melanoma cancers.” (Adam, 2013)
“Just take my hand, together we can do it, I’m gonna love you through it.” (I’m Gonna Love You Through It- Martina McBride). Breast cancer is an awful disease that will change your life in a single moment. ”Everything in my life was turned upside-down. I really had a wonderful life; A husband, three children. And breast cancer came along and just smashed my world” (Janelle’s Journey). Breast cancer is an aggressive war that takes a great amount of fighting to survive. “You go from being perfectly healthy, to feeling like, ‘okay, I’m dying’. It started a whirlwind of things that I never anticipated having to go through.” (Bonnie’s Story- Beyond The Shock). Did you know that the youngest person ever to have been diagnosed with breast cancer
Skin cancer is a disease where cancer (malignant) cells are found on the outer layer of the skin (epidermis). The three types of cells found in the epidermis are squamous cells, basal cells, and melanocytes. These cells in time grow to be cancerous. Thus, the three types of skin cancers are squamous cell, basal cell, and melanoma. Melanoma is the most deadliest and destructive type of cancer. (“Skin Cancer” infotrac.com) The number of people with melanoma has risen in Scotland from 3.5 in 1979 to 10.6 per 100,000 in 1998 for men and 7.0 to 13.1 for women. (Miller 945) Squamous cell and Basal cell skin cancer can kill up to 2,200 people a year in the United States. (Sommerfield SIRS.com) Basal cell, being the most common type of skin cancer, is the cancer that about 75 percent of the people have. (“Skin Cancer “ infotrac.com) Melanoma is mostly seen in older men but ever since tanning came in during the 1970’s, it has increased in women 60 percent around the ages 15-29 over the past three decades.(Sommerfield SIRS.com) “And basal cell and squamous cell cancers are increasing at a rate of about 5 percent per year”(Sommerfield SIRS.com).
Staging of melanoma includes classifying anatomical features as well as histological features. As a patient progresses in stages, the prognosis becomes worse. Major determinants of outcome in early stage patients, are presence of ulceration and tumor thickness (Dickson and Gershenwald, 2011). Stage 0 is considered as in situ and is 100% curable by surgical resection (Mocellin and Nitti, 2011). Stage I is defined as localized melanoma where malignant melanocytes are only found in the epidermis. The survival rate is high at this stage, between 70 % and 95% (Dickson and Greshenwald, 2011). Stage II melanomas have invaded the papillary dermis (Breslow, 1970). The 5-year survival rate for stage II patients is 53% to 82%, depending on the substage (Balch et al., 2009). Stage III patients display regional metastasis to local lymph nodes, and the prognosis is dependent on the number of nodes involved. Nodal involvement can be detected histologically or macroscopically in lymph node biopsies. The 5-year survival rate for stage III patients is between 40% and 78% depending on the substage (Balch et al., 2009). Stage IV melanoma displays distant metastasis to distant skin, subcutaneous and visceral tissues and distant lymph nodes, with a 5-year survival rate of 10% (Dickson and Gershenwald,
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.
The patient will also have to undergo surgery to remove the cancer, and the individual will undergo cancer treatment. Melanoma can spread to other parts of the body that are sometimes internal and not visible to the eye. Sometimes a person needs to let their worries fade away for a little bit, and these tanning methods can do that for some people. Tanning helps cope with stress and depression as stated in the text “tanning has been known to improve seasonal affective disorder” which is a type of depression that a person goes through around the same time every year (Banerjee).
The first sign of melanoma is often a change in the size, shape, or color of an existing mole or the appearance of a new mole. Men most commonly develop melanoma on the trunk, particularly the back, and women on the legs or arms. Melanoma develops in a manner similar to other cancer types. A cell's DNA genes, which control cell division and reproduction, become damaged. The damaged genes cause the cell to divide and grow without control or order, eventually becoming a malignant tumor.
For years, people have been looking for a cure for the devastating disease of cancer. Cancer is the third highest killer in the US, with over 2,500,000 victims per year. Oncologists and scientists around the country are researching all forms of cancer in an effort to understand, treat, and ultimately defeat this disease. Already there have been numerous advances in the field, such as chemotherapy and gene therapy. One advance has been the use of a cell process known as apoptosis.
Skin cancer has four main types of treatments. One treatment that is done is actual surgery on the affected area. Surgeons will cut out the skin and tissue that is being affected by the disease. The most well known treatment for cancer is chemotherapy. Along with chemotherapy doctors will also treat patients with immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Chemotherapy is a treatment that almost every patient diagnosed with skin cancer has to go through, this is used to destroy the cancer cells. It can be received in four different ways, pills, cream, injection, and catheters are all ways a patient could receive this treatment (“Melanoma/Skin Cancer Health”). Immunotherapy is more well known as Biotherapy. Unlike like chemotherapy, which is a deadly chemical that is used to kill cells, biotherapy is natural protein. It uses Cytokines which is made in the immune system. The vaccines that are used are HPV, BCG and Provenge(“Melanoma/Skin Cancer Health”). Targeted treatment is used when a patient is going to die no matter what. It’s used to attack specific areas. The treatment stops the cancer cells and the signals they produce. They use Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators or SERMS(“Skin Cancer”). Treatment of skin cancer could be the life and death of the patient that is
Skin, the body's outer covering and the largest organ of the body, could be affected by cancer. Skin cancer, the abdominal growth of skin cells, is a type of disease where cancer cells are to be found in the outer layer of a skin. There are two types of skin cancer malignant melanomas, which are difficult to treat, and non-melanomas cancers, which are certainly curable. Since there is more than one type of skin cancer, you have to know which type you have because it affects your treatment options and your outlook (prognosis) (1). Checking your skin for different changes can help detect skin cancer at its earliest stages.