“You have cancer.” Those few words, uttered from a doctor’s mouth, can break hearts and change lives. The century old fear of cancer still survives in the hearts and minds of those whose lives and families have been affected by this tragic disease. With modern medicines more and more people are surviving the many different types of cancer, but the fear of the disease is still very prominent. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are just a few of the treatments used to treat cancer. Surgery is used to remove small tumors that have not yet spread through the body. Afterwards radiation is used to control the smaller tumor growths that could not be removed during surgery. Chemotherapy, often just called ‘chemo’, is used to destroy the cancer that has spread or that can’t be reached surgically or by a radiation therapy (“History of Cancer”). It has saved many people’s lives by destroying the cancer in their bodies. Chemo is like life, it had a beginning, it has a middle, and hopefully one day the need for chemotherapy will end.
Chemotherapy was first discovered during World War II when naval personnel, who had been exposed to mustard gas, were found with toxic changes in their bone marrow cells. During the war, “the US Army was studying chemicals related to mustard gas to develop more effective agents for war and also develop protective measures.” This research led to the discovery of a compound called nitrogen mustard (“History of Cancer). Two pharmacologists, Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman, used nitrogen mustard to treat a patient who had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The tumor masses of the patient regressed, but “this remission, however, lasted only a few weeks, and disease again progressed, but the principle was establis...
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...0’s cancer mortality rates have dramatically decreased from 10% to over 80% for leukemia. Overall decline in mortality for cancer was nearly 54% from 1978 to 2008 (National Cancer Institute, 2011). Decrease in mortality rates are due to improvements in cancer treatments. Recent advances in treatments are due to aggressive cancer therapies and collaboration of findings from clinical trials. More than 80 percent of patients are expected to be long term cancer survivors (National Cancer Institute, 2011).
2. Cytokines in Cancer Therapy. Francis R. Balkwill. Oxford University Press, NY, 1989. pp 1-8.
"Palliative Care | Cancer.Net." Doctor-approved Cancer Information from ASCO | Cancer.Net. Cancer.net, Feb. 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. .
I have elected to transcribe my proposal argument on issues regarding cancer chemoprevention. I selected this topic because reasonably minute devotion has been given to cancer chemoprevention research in ethical writings, particularly in relation to the huge quantity of moral studies in cancer treatment exploration. Cancer chemoprevention trials test the ability and care of medicinal agents in averting cancer before its manifestation. I believe that phase III chemoprevention issues can be less prevalent by simply ensuring enhanced communication and etiquette between researchers and investigators.
Chemotherapy drugs are more dangerous than other drugs because of their narrow therapeutic index. What is therapeutic index you ask? It is the ratio between a toxic dose and a therapeutic dose of a drug so any medication error with chemotherapy drugs could be a fatal one. Chemotherapy drugs can be very toxic even at the prescribed therapeutic level recommended by the physician. The findings in this article shows that the patient themselves are the first line of defense in spotting errors in medications they receive because they obs...
For cancer patients there are several treatment options. Surgery can remove cancerous tumors, chemotherapy uses drugs for treatment, and radiation therapy. The doctor in charge of the patient’s treatment may also choose to use radiation therapy. “Radiation
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.
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.
Government funding has proven to be essential and effective in the fight against cancer. On December 23, 1971 President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, which promised to finance the quest for the cure. Financial aid such as this has directly benefitted survival rates for those diagnosed with cancer. Forty years ago before such funding was provided, when a child was diagnosed with cancer most physicians considered the patient to be terminally ill and supportive care was almost the only thing offered to the family. However over the last few decades, due to research and participation in clinical trials performed due to funding, the majority of children are cured. Because of the creations of new drugs and therapies as a result of government aid, the survival rat...
I believe my thesis statement is argumentative because, not all States allow for a patient to choose what form of drug they can use to relieve pain, nausea, sleep and eating problems while on Chemo and Radiation therapy. There are many studies that have prove how the use of smoking or vaporized (inhale) have help Cancer patients have a more enjoyable
"What are the treatments for cancer?." A.D.A.M. Life's Greatest Mysteries. 2001. eLibrary. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.
...evention: Implications for the 21st Century.” Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 18, No. 2 (2007). 118.