Diagnosis, Staging, and Complications of Cancer

Approach to Care of Cancer
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Approach to Care of Cancer
Overview
Cancer is a combination of ailments that is characterized by unrestrained cell division and development. This unrestrained cell duplication and development gives rise to the creation of acute tumors that quickly spread to nearby body parts. If not treated in its early stages, cancer also progresses to other parts of the body mainly through blood flow or the lymphatic system. For many years, scholars have tried to conduct studies to establish the real cause of cancer. Most of the studies have however indicated that tobacco use, obesity, and radiation are the main causes of cancer. Research carried over the years has shown that early detection of cancer is critical in effectively combating the disease (Bodenheimer, & Wagner, 2013). The main reason for this is that it allows the disease to be treated before it can progress to other parts of the body. Although everyone is at a risk of contracting cancer, the risk is seen to be greater among the aged population. The advancement of age increases the human fear of death due to the contending forces of death, curtailed life expectancy, and greater threats of diseases such as cancer. Comprehending the diagnosis and the manner in which cancer progresses is critical when designing the various treatment options for individual patients. This paper examines the prognosis of and various stages of the disease, its complications and the side effects of the cure, and the available methods to lessen physical and psychological effects.
Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer
Diagnosis refers to the process of establishing whether a patient is suffering from a certain ailment. In order to conduct a prognosis of cancer, a doctor must first examine a specimen of the affected organ in the laboratory. What this means is that once an individual or the doctor suspects that the patient is suffering from cancer, then a biopsy has to be undertaken. A biopsy entails surgically removing a small portion of tissue that is then examined under a microscope. Examining the tissue microscopically allows the physician to detect the presence of a tumor and also to know whether the tumor contains cancerous cells or not (Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2010).
The main methods of removing samples for a biopsy are endoscopy, needle biopsy, or surgical biopsy. Endoscopy refers to a process and method in which, a doctor makes use of a thin, lightened tube to scan areas inside the body. This process allows the doctor to monitor what is happening, take images, as well as to extract samples for examination. On the other hand, needle biopsy entails the use of a special needle to extract tissue from a certain area while a surgical biopsy entails a surgical removal of a tumor either partially or entirely for examination (Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2010).
Once a physician has established that a certain body tissue has cancer cells, the next phase involves establishing how aggressive the cancer is since this helps in defining the right treatment modality. This is achieved by establishing whether the tumors resemble the normal cells from the area where they have been extracted or whether they are entirely different from the normal cells. Essentially, tumor cells that resemble the normal cells are less aggressive as compared to the tumor cells that do not take after any specific tissues (Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2010).
Once a certain tissue has been found to contain cancer cells, the next most important step is staging or rather establishing the stage or level, of the cancer. This is a critical and important step because treatment options used are designed based on the disease stage. There are four major stages of cancer development, namely in situ, local, regional, and distant. In the first stage, the cancer cells have not spread to other body tissues while in the second stage the cells are only in a specific organ where they began to develop. In the third stage, the cancer cells begin to disperse to surrounding body tissues and in the last stage, the cancer has already spread in most of the body organs. Staging is a critical part in the effective prognosis of cancer. If the cancer is in situ, the chances of a complete cure are very high just as in the same case as cancers that are localized. Although each type of cancer has its own pace of progression, these four staging process is the same and is, therefore, a crucial process in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer (Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2010).
Complications of Cancer and Side Effects of Treatment
It is not surprising that most of the treatment options that are available for treating cancer are capable of harming the body’s healthy cells. A major complication that usually arises during the treatment of cancer is cardiovascular toxicity. This complication is often brought about by anthracyclines, which are anticancer drugs especially used in chemotherapy. These drugs have been found to be the leading causes of heart failure or pericarditis in some patients. In most cases, anthracyclines cause the thickening of the heart walls, something that might lead to difficulties in breathing. Additionally, it may result in the heart being unable to pump blood efficiently to other areas of the body. The main method of treating this complication is by ensuring that the drugs are given in the right dosages as overdosing has been found to be the main reason behind this complication....