All what you should know about cancer
Cancer is a disease involving any organ of body and caused by the abnormal or unregulated growth
of standard body cell or tissue. These unregulated growths of tissue form a mass or lump or may
diffuse and called as tumour or neoplasm. There is high incidence of cancer all over the world. India has become a preferred destination for cancer treatment.
Cost of Cancer Treatment in India
The cost of cancer treatment is varying with case to case based on the stage of cancer.
Enqoue healthcare services guides you to access the best Cancer specialist at affordable cost maintaining high quality. Connect to us for complete cost details.
Visit our site to know more cancer treatment in India.
The tumours are grouped into two broad categories
named as Benign and Malignant.
-
Benign Tumours
These tumours are located at one specific site and do not spread or involve other organ of body.The treatment of benign tumours is relatively easier to treat and success rate is nearly 99{aab61a477b0a49598417aa730735cb22fb0cf0f20dbe6c4103fd3d99c6258be7}.
Sign and Symptoms
- Prominent lump
- Bleeding
- Pain and fever
- Loss of Appetite
- Weight Loss
Example
1. Lipoma: Outgrowth of fatty tissue
2. Adenoma: Polyps are example of Adenoma
3. Neurofibroma: Outgrowth of nervous tissue
4. Fibromas: Benign tumour formed from fibrous tissue found in any organ. Uterus is most
common site of fibroma.
5. Ameloblastoma: This the benign aggressive tumour of dental issue involving Jaw.
6. Benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH)
-
Malignant Tumours:
The cancerous cell originates in a organ and spread to other location of same organ or different body
organ from site of Origin. For example, Lung cancer can spread to brain, liver etc through blood or
lymphatic circulation and start damaging other sites along with site of origin. The spread of disease is
called as metastasis.
Sign and symptoms
In beginning of disease, most of cancer does not produce any sign and symptom and accidently
diagnosed with some other disease of regular body check-up. The disease may present direct sign
and symptoms such as weight loss, fever, lumps etc. However, in most of cases sign and symptoms
of cancer surrogates with other disease.
However, the direct signs and symptoms are:
- Non-Healing ulcer
- Abnormal body outgrowth
- Lumps
- Pain
- Fever
- Weight loss
- Loss of appetite
Organ Involved
All organ of body having potential to develop into cancerous lesion. The cancerous lesion may be of
benign or malignant.
Example
1. Breast cancer
2. Cervical cancer
3. Squamous cell carcinoma
4. Basal cell carcinoma
Classification of cancer
Based on origin and involvement of organ, the cancer is classified as follows
1. Carcinoma: The cancers derived from epithelial cell is known as carcinoma. The involved
organs are breast, Prostate, Lung, Pancreas, Colon etc
2. Sarcoma: The cancer of connective tissue is known as Sarcoma. The organ involved are
Bone, Cartilage, fat, nerve etc
3. Lymphoma and leukaemia: The cancer arising from blood forming cells of body. Bone
marrow is blood producing organa of the body.
4. Germ Cell Tumour: The cancers derived from pluripotent cells and most often occurs in
testes and ovary.
5. Blastoma: Cancers derived from immature cell or embryonic tissue is known as blastoma.
Causes of Cancer
There are various reason of cancer and some them are listed below:
- Genetic mutation due to environmental factors
- Hereditary disease
- Use of chemical in food chain
- Radiations
- Injury and exposure to carcinogens
- Smoking
Diagnosis
The cancer can be diagnosed by using one or combination of diagnostic tests listed below:
1. X-Ray of body organ
2. CT scan and MRI
3. PET CT
4. Ultrasonography
5. Cancer Marker biochemical tests
Treatment
The cancer treatment is divided into 3 categories:
1. Primary treatment: The purpose of this treatment is to completely remove the tumour or
cancer. The most common primary treatment of cancer is surgical removal of cancerous site.
However if cancer cell is sensitive to chemotherapy or radiotherapy then it is used to kill the
cancerous cell.
2. Adjuvant treatment: The purpose of this treatment to kills any cancer cell remain after
primary treatment. The radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy is example of
adjuvant treatment.
3. Palliative treatment: The palliative treatment is used to reduce the side effect of cancer and
it includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy, pain killers, morphine and counselling.
Combination methods to treat cancer
The treatment of cancer can be done by using one or combination of methods mentioned below:
1. Surgery: By this procedure cancerous tissue is completely or partially removed from body
through surgical intervention.
2. Radiotherapy: The cancerous cell/tissue is killed by using high energy X-rays beams. If the
radiation beam is placed inside body, it is called as Brachytherapy and when used from
outside of body then called as external beam radiation.
3. Chemotherapy: In this technique cytotoxic or anti-neoplastic drugs introduced through oral
or IV route. These drugs kills the cancerous cell.
4. Immunotherapy: Why cancer exist in body? because the immune system of body does not
recognise cancerous cells as diseased/foreign body. The drugs increase the sensitivity of the
immune system to identify the cancerous cell and kill them.
5. Bone Marrow transplant: This technique is used to treat the blood cancer or any blood
related ailment. In the technique blood formative cell i.e. disease bone marrow is replaced
with donor’s healthy bone marrow. In the case of Leukaemia, prior to Bone Marrow
transplant chemotherapy may require. (The cost of Bone Marrow transplant is nearly$35000)
6. Targeted therapy: It type of chemotherapy, where drugs specifically targets the neoplasm
and kill them.
7. Hormone therapy: The cancer’s like breast and prostate cancer are fuelled by human body
hormone. Thus physician restricts or blocks the production of those Hormone and controls
the growth of cancer.
8. Cryoablation: As the name suggest, in this technique localised cancerous growth is frozen to
kill using cryotherapy mechanism.
9. Cyber knife technique: This technique is used to treat the brain cancer and this is non-
invasive technique.
10. Robotic Surgery: to access the inaccessible area to remove or control or kill the to kill the cancerous cell.
Prognosis:
Prognosis of cancer is very good i.e. over 95{aab61a477b0a49598417aa730735cb22fb0cf0f20dbe6c4103fd3d99c6258be7} when identified and treated in early stage. However,
prognosis id poor in advanced state of disease.