Approach to care of cancer.

APPROACH TO CARE OF CANCER AUTHOR NAME: UNIVERSITY : APPROCH TO CARE OF CANCER According to Mascow and Cowan (2007), cancer refers to the unrestrained cell division that takes place abnormally in the body. The cancerous cell that causes the abnormal growth is called malignant cell. A cell is a fundamental basic unit of life and it multiplies whenever the body is in need of more and dies whenever the body does not need more cells. Cancer develops when there is unrestrained growth or cell division in the body and the growth is unable to be controlled due to the high rate of cell division that is taking place at that time. Diagnosis refers to the process of identifying signs and symptoms of a disease complication; this is done through several tests that are usually carried out repeatedly by a professional doctor in order to know the causes of the signs and symptoms. In relation to cancer, staging refers to the procedure of determining how much cancer is in one`s body and where it is specifically located. According to Edge, Byrd, Compton, Fritz, Greene, and Trotti (2010), there are two main types of staging and they consist of feeling the affected area and the doctor might use his or her hands to feel. Imaging tests are also carried out during this stage and involves taking images of the affected areas and are usually painless procedures of getting images of internal organs and lastly biopsy, that is taking pieces of tumors and examine them under a microscope, the piece of tumor can be removed during a surgery operation. According to Yarbro, Frogge, Goodman and Groenwald (2000), pathologic staging is also known as surgical staging and it is based on the results and information gotten from a surgery. This staging gives treatment response and the outcome of it. It is usually done to remove the cancer, obtain tissue samples and showing extend to which the cancer has spread in the body. During diagnosis, staging is done using a staging system and the doctor uses the results and information obtained during the tests to prescribe treatment. According to Nair and Peate (2009), in staging the doctor looks for three main factors from the cancer and uses the TNM system of staging. Firstly, (T) category shows that the doctor examines the size of the tumor which is measured in centimeters or millimeters and whether it has developed into the surrounding tissues. TX shows that the tumor cannot be measured at all; T0 shows that tumor cannot be found and Tis implies that the cancer is only growing at the surface of the tissue without penetrating deep inside the tissue. The number T1, T2, T3and T4 shows how intensively the tumor has invaded the tissue and the greater the number the deeper is the tumor. Secondly, (N) category shows if the cancer grew. (NX) implies that the nearest lymph node cannot be examined due to the depth of its invention, N0 shows that the nearest lymph node do not have cancer and the numbers N1, N2,and N3 show the number of lymph that are present in that tissue. Lastly (M) category shows whether the cancer has grown and spread to the other parts of the body.MX shows that the spread of cancer cannot be evaluated, M0 shows whether the cancer has reached other sections in the body and M1 shows that the distance of spread of cancer was found. One should bear in mind that not all cancers have got this system of staging this is because this system is only applicable to cancers that spread following the lymph code. Therefore cancers like leukemia and brain cancer do not follow this system. Many different kinds of cancer have been diagnosed and cancer happens to develop in all organs or body tissues. Some of the types of cancer affect mostly the main organs of the body like skin and leukemia that is cancer of blood. In almost all the kinds of cancer, there are similar symptoms that include: night sweating, drastic loss of weight, fatigue, severe fever and malaise that is feeling uncomfortable or unease. There are a number of thing...