Posts tagged Causes
Prostate Cancer – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Treatment and Prognosis
Dec 30th
Prostatic cancer is the most common cancer in men over the age of fifty.
Adenocarcinoma is the most common form.
Prostate cancers seldom produce symptoms until the cancer is in the advanced stage so early diagnosis is essential as in the early stages the disease is curable.
Location and Function
The Prostate is an organ forming part of the male reproductive system. It is located immediately below the bladder and just in front of the bowel. Its main function is to produce fluid which protects and enriches sperm.
In younger men the prostate is about the size of a walnut. It is doughnut shaped as it surrounds the beginning of the urethra, the tube that conveys urine from the bladder to the penis. The nerves that control erections surround the prostate.
Signs and Symptoms of Prostate Cancer
Waking frequently at night to urinate
Sudden or urgent need to urinate
Difficulty in starting to urinate
Slow flow of urine and difficulty in stopping
Discomfort when urinating
Painful ejaculation
Blood in the urine or semen
Decrease in libido (sex urge)
Reduced ability to get an erection
Most men tend to accept the onset of one or more of these symptoms as being a natural consequence of ageing. However, anyone experiencing any of the above symptoms is advised to consult a doctor without delay. Early expert diagnosis and treatment of tumors is important and may avert potentially serious health consequences.
Prostate carcinoma is usually one of the slower growing cancers. In the past, it was most frequently encountered in men over 70, and many of those men died of other causes before their prostate tumour could kill them. This led to the old saying “most men die with, not of, prostrate cancer”.
However, that is certainly is not true today. Three developments have changed things considerably:
Men are living longer, giving the cancer more time to spread beyond the prostate, with potentially fatal consequences.
More men in their early sixties, fifties and even forties are being detected with prostate cancer. Earlier on-set, combined with the greater male life expectancy, means those cancers have more time to spread and become life-threatening unless diagnosed and treated.
Prostate cancer in younger men often tends to be more aggressive and hence more life-threatening within a shorter time.
Risk Factors and PSA Testing
Risk factors for prostate cancer include diets high in fat and low in vegetables. Risk factors include; age, 75% of cases are in men over 65 years and familial sufferers. Prostate cancer is most often discovered by physical examination or by screening blood tests, such as the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test.
The PSA test measures the blood level of prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme produced by the prostate. The risk of prostate cancer increases with increasing PSA levels.
The majority of men who reach age 85, in fact, have cancerous prostate cells, but the disease is developing so gradually that it never threatens their quality of life.
Genetic factors play a role, particularly for families in whom the diagnosis is made in men under 60 years of age, and the risk of prostate cancer rises with the number of close relatives who have the disease.
Preventative measures
Researchers at Harvard University found that men who ate cooked tomatoes or foods made with them (tomato sauce or ketchup, for instance) more than twice a week were less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Daily use of anti-inflammatory medicines such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen may decrease prostate cancer risk.
Frequent ejaculations also seem to have a definite protective effect against Prostrate cancer.
Many prostate cancers are not destined to be lethal, and most men will ultimately die from causes other than of the disease. Because many prostate tumors are slow growing, survival rates are excellent when the disease is detected in its early stages.
Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer
The most appropriate treatment is primarily determined by the stage and aggressiveness (how quickly it is growing and spreading) of the disease when it is discovered. Detecting prostate cancer early is the key to beating the disease.
Many factors affect the decision whether or not to treat the disease: the patient’s age, whether the cancer has spread, the presence of other medical conditions, and the patient’s overall health.
Treatment for prostate cancer may involve watchful waiting, surgery, radiation therapy including brachytherapy and external beam radiation, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), chemotherapy, cryosurgery, hormonal therapy, or some combination.
Because all treatments can have significant side effects, such as erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, treatment discussions often focus on balancing the goals of therapy with the risks of lifestyle alterations. Natural treatments for prostate cancer symptoms are also worth looking at.
Dick Aronson has been involved in the healthcare industry for 35 years. He has written numerous articles on the subject and runs a number of informative websites, viz: Go to Cancer Information-online , Go to Prostate Cancer Information and Go to Health Innovations
Pancreatic Cancer – Causes – Symptoms – Treatment of Pancretic Cancer
Nov 27th
Pancreatic cancer is one disease that affects the pancreas. The pancreas is a gland located in the back of the upper stomach close to the backbone. The pancreas has several functions; the main two are that it makes pancreatic juices and several hormones including insulin. Cancer is the growth and splitting up of cells in an unrestraint way. Cells become cancerous when the control mechanisms that manage cell growth don’t work. The cells continue to grow uncontrollably and in due course form a malignant tumor.
Pancreatic Cancer Causes
The exact as to what damages DNA in the vast majority of cases of pancreatic cancer is not clear. In other words the exact pancreatic cancer causes are not clear. But it is known that a small percentage of people develop the disease as a result of a genetic predisposition. These people who have a close relative, such as a parent or sibling, with pancreatic cancer have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer themselves.
Age: is also a factor to be considered which increases the incidence of the disease. As age increases the probability of pancreatic cancer also increases. The incidence of Pancreatic Cancer is relatively low in individuals up to age 50, after which it increases significantly. The age group 65 – 79 has the highest incidence of Pancreatic Cancer.
Symptoms and Diagnosis:
Pancreatic cancer is a ‘silent’ disease: There is no symptom at the early stage, nor is there a reliable screening test for early detection.
As the tumor grows, pain is often felt in the upper abdomen and sometimes, the back. The pain is exacerbated after meals or when lying down. Other symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea and general fatigue.
If the common bile duct were blocked by the tumor, symptoms of jaundice appear: The skin and whites of the eyes turn yellow and the color of urine darkens.
Treatment Options for Pancreatic Cancer
The treatment plan for pancreatic cancer differs from patient to patient. When established, treatment plans are based on several factors such as the stage and location of the cancer, the patient’s age and general health state.
Potentially curative surgery is a type of surgery that can be performed when the cancer can be removed. Potentially curative surgeries are performed when the cancer has started in the head of the pancreas (near the bile duct). Cancer of the head of the pancreas is easily detected by the symptoms it produces such as jaundice which is caused by the bile duct blockage.
Palliative surgery is a type of surgery chosen when the tumor is too widespread. The purpose of this surgery is to relieve the symptoms or complications caused by the cancer.
This cancer is difficult to diagnose because there are no symptoms in the early stages and because , when symptoms appear, they match other diseases. Depending on the stage and location of the cancer, surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy may be used. If the cancer has not spread beyond the pancreas, therapy can be successful, but, as stated earlier, it’s very unlikely to find pancreatic cancer in the early stages. In later stages, often the therapy concentrates on the comfort of the patient.
Read about Interior Decoration, Interior Design. Also Read about latest laptops, laptops reviewsand Various Dog Breeds
Kidney Cancer – Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
Nov 26th
Many people with kidney cancer want to take an active part in making decisions about their medical care. They want to learn all they can about their disease and their treatment choices. However, shock and stress after the diagnosis can make it hard to think of everything they want to ask the doctor. It often helps to make a list of questions before an appointment. To help remember what the doctor says, people may take notes or ask whether they may use a tape recorder.
In adults, the most common type of kidney cancer is renal cell carcinoma, which begins in the cells that line the small tubes within your kidneys. Children are more likely to develop a kind of kidney cancer called Wilms’ tumor. The American Cancer Society estimates that almost 51,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year. The incidence of kidney cancer seems to be increasing, though it isn’t clear why. Many kidney cancers are detected during procedures for other diseases or conditions.
Your kidneys are part of the urinary system, which removes waste and excess fluid and electrolytes from your blood, controls the production of red blood cells, and regulates your blood pressure. Inside each kidney are more than a million small filtering units called nephrons. As blood circulates through your kidneys, the nephrons filter out waste products as well as unneeded minerals and water. This liquid waste â urine â flows through two narrow tubes (ureters) into your bladder, where it’s stored until it’s eliminated from your body through another tube, the urethra.
Keep in mind that these symptoms are also the signs for many other illnesses. Please see a health care professional if you are experiencing anything abnormal for further diagnosis.
Kidney cancer includes renal cell carcinoma (cancer that forms in the lining of very small tubes in the kidney that filter the blood and remove waste products) and renal pelvis carcinoma (cancer that forms in the center of the kidney where urine collects). It also includes Wilms tumor, which is a type of kidney cancer that usually develops in children under the age of 5.
Symptoms may result from metastatic renal cell cancer in the bones, lungs, or elsewhere. If the disease attacks the bones, for example, it can cause bone pain, which is deep and achy.
Treatment
To plan the best treatment, the doctor needs to know the stage (extent) of the disease. The stage is based on the size of the tumor, whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to what parts of the body. Staging may involve imaging tests such as an ultrasound or a CT scan. The doctor also may use an MRI. For this test, a powerful magnet linked to a computer makes detailed pictures of organs and blood vessels.
Biological therapy (immunotherapy) uses your body’s immune system to fight cancer. Drugs in this category include interferon and interleukin-2, which are synthetic versions of chemicals made in your body. These biological therapy drugs have serious side effects, including chills, fever, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. Biological therapy drugs are sometimes used alone, in combination or after surgery.
Read about home remedies, natural remedies, home remedy .Read about health care, beauty tips makeup tips and home remedies
Recent Comments