Wasting (Cachexia)
Cancer frequently leads to widely recognized but poorly understood syndrome known as cachexia. The manifestations of this syndrome are weakness, loss of weight and appetite (anorexia). The patient appears ill and emaciated. The cause of anorexia remains complex and unclear. Muscle biopsies from breast and colon cancer patients show fat content of the muscles to be half of non-cancer patients. There is also an increased break down of proteins in the muscles.
· Avoid smoking, especially cigarettes.
· Avoid drinking excessive alcohol.
· Avoid excessive sun exposure, if you are light-skinned.
· Avoid using birth control pills indiscriminately.
· Avoid using estrogens for menopausal symptoms except under specific guidelines.
· Avoid early or frequent intercourse, especially with multiple sex partners.
· Try to have only two or three pregnancies, after the age of 20, but do not wait until after 30 to have your first.
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In the majority of cases the cause of Leukemia is unknown. Several factors, however, are known to be associated with the development of Leukemia. These are:
These are commonly called “blood cancer”. In fact, these are cancer of the bone marrow which produces the cells, viz. red and white blood cells and the platelets that circulate in the blood. In this condition, the white blood cells produced in the bone marrow arc cancerous and immature. They are also produced in number much more than the normal cells. That is why the condition is called Leukemia, literally meaning white blood. The other cells produced in the marrow such as the red blood cells and the platelets are produced less.
These arc also divided into two types, depending upon the type of white blood cells involved.
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The following are the symptoms of acute leukemia:
· Tiredness.
· Bleeding after slight injury.
· Frequent infections.
· Lump in the abdomen which is found out to be the spleen.
· Discomfort or pain over the bones.
· Loss of weight.
· Diminished appetite.
· The onset is after abrupt with flu-like symptoms and fatigue.
· There may be fever, malaise and a rapidly progressive anaemia.
· Bleeding from the nose (epistaxis), bleeding from the gums or bleeding patches in the skin called purpura, are common and are due largely to reduction in platelet count in the blood (thrombocytopenia). Sore throat and ulcers in the mouth or pharynx are frequent, due to reduction in normal polymor; ho-nuclear leukocytes.
This comprises all lymphomas other than Hodgkin’s. Most of these occur in people above 50 years of age, though some occur in children as well. They differ from Hodgkin’s disease because of their different histological picture. These lymphomas grow rapidly, but are potentially curable.
These are cancers of the lymph glands. While most cancers occurring anywhere spread into lymph glands, lymphomas primarily involve the lymph nodes. On account of their characteristics, lymphomas are divided into two categories:
Thyroid gland is situated in the front of the neck, most of it on the two sides of the larynx. Its secretion pours directly into the bloodstream and regulates among many other things, the metabolism of the body.
Brain cancers occur either primarily in the brain itself, or spread to the brain from other sites such as lungs, breasts, lymphomas, leukaemias, etc.
Since the skull provides no scope for expansion, when the cancer mass grows, it causes pressure symptoms on other parts of the brain.