Various anti-cancer drugs developed over a period of three decades, can be grouped into different categories depending upon what function of the cancerous cells they disturb so as to kill them.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Categories of Anti-cancer Drugs
Chemotherapy is the prevention or treatment of disease by the use of chemical substances. The term is sometimes restricted to the treatment of infectious diseases with antibiotics and other drugs or to the control of cancer with antimetabolites (that prevent cell growth) and similar drugs.
Cancers which develop in organs that are known to be under hormonal control, sometimes retain hormonal dependency. Withdrawing the source of the hormone in some such cases, lessens the growth of cancer. Cancers of the breast, prostate, uterus and thyroid are the ones amenable to hormonal treatment.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Hormonal Treatment of Certain Cancers
Side-effects vary from drug to drug. But there are some which are more commonly seen and these are as follows:
Weakness: This is one of the commonest side-effects with most of the anti-cancer drugs. If the patient shows improvement in cancer situation after treatment, this side-effect may be felt less and less as the treatment goes on.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Side-effects of Chemotherapy
Some anti-cancer drugs are adequate in themselves to treat a particular cancer, but most of them are not. Since various drugs act differently, it was considered that a combination of them, each acting differently, would have a synergistic or increased effect. Dramatic results were produced by treating lymphomas or tumour of lymph node in this way.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Choice of Drug or Drug Combination
Cancer can cause many symptoms. These symptoms may be categorised as under:
· Common to any cancer
· Others that depend upon the site of cancer, and
· The type of cancer. Some symptoms are caused by the treatment by means of chemotherapy and radiation.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Common Symptoms & Their Treatment – Part One
Leads to Cure:
· Blood cancer or acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children
· Cancer of lymphatic system or Burkitt’s lymphoma
· Hodgkin’s disease—a malignant tumour of lymphatic system
· Wilms’ tumour or tumour of the kidney common among children
· Cancer of the muscle or Rhabdomyosarcoma
· Cancer of the testes or Teratoma of the testes
· Cancer of the placenta or Choriocarcinoma
· Cancer of bone common among children or Ewing’s sarcoma
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Response of Different Cancers to Chemotherapy
Various problems arise in cancer patients during their illness. These may be related to the treatment which the patient undergoes. These problems need effective management.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Management of Pain Due to Cancer
Cough
It is treated after finding out the cause. Cough caused by infection in a case of lung cancer is treated by giving appropriate antibiotic. Irritant cough without much phlegm is suppressed by a cough mixture containing Codeine or related compounds.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Common Symptoms & Their Treatment – Part Two
After an ostomy operation, the patient loses voluntary control over the discharge of the wastes concerned, and he has to wear a special appliance for the collection of this waste. With care and training, the patient learns very soon how to manage it and thus lives a perfectly normal life.
Continue reading Cancer Treatment: Management After Cancer Surgery