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Posts Tagged ‘cancer’

Breast cancer really is a huge challenge which brings with it far reaching consequences and implications. The issues and problems that show themselves in the context of the breast cancer journey can be far reaching. The fear and tension associated with coping can cause psychological and emotional damage both for actual patient, her spouse as well as her extended family. Close friends as well as workmates often find things change dramatically and this can often be hard to adapt to.

Breast cancer is definitely getting much more prevalent - there must scarcely exist a household within the United states or even United kingdom that has missed been affected by cancer in some manner. And in men too the number of cases of breast cancer goes on consistently rising. It’s not only women. We learned just recently of a couple in Birmingham, United kingdom when both husband and wife were found to have cancer of the breast.

Around the world too there are countless organizations and charitable bodies who have the goal of raising money to support breast cancer research. Every year they bring in millions of dollars in cash and pour it steadily towards the doctors and hospitals who specialize in cancer care. Some of them work on a purely local basis, others function on a national scale or beyond. All of them need large amounts of income to maintain their role and are always striving for new ways to keep the funding levels high and growing. They seem to constantly seek innovative ways to raise the capital required.

Susan G Komen was a breast cancer sufferer who formed what was to begin with a small scale fund raising project. It has now grown to become one of the biggest and most important medical charities in the world. The Komen foundation is probably best known for their races that they organize in every major city in the USA and in other countries too. Race For Life in the UK is a similar concept.

The Komen races cover a wide range of challenges and distances - from short fun runs to the longest ultra marathon. You can choose the one that suits you best. The main thing is that you get yourself out there and take part. These events earn the charity millions of dollars annually and bring great attention and media interest too. The celebrities who take part bring the media circus with them - and everyone benefits.

Can’t manage a run? No problem - just walk instead. Komen and other charities also offer long distance and short distance sponsored walks and often many thousands of people take part. One of these walks in the United Kingdom is takes place in the dark of the night and is called the Moon Walk. Those who take part - both women and men - wear extravagant brightly colored and decorated bras.

Individuals generate cash for breast cancer both separately as well as within teams. You may merely donate funds in your area or even get involved with a fund raising event and convince all your own pals to sponsor you. The most important thing is that you go ahead and do it.

Please contribute to breast cancer fund raising if you can. You could be making an enormous difference to peoples lives.

Marjory Cameron is one of life’s Breast Cancer Survivors. She has shared her own experiences and supported thousands of women on issues like choosing a mastectomy bra and other similar topics

Being a smoker is more fun. This widespread myth has now been busted by British scientists. The survey, which included 880 ex-smokers, showed that roughly 70% of the ex-smokers found themselves to be happier after the smoking cessation. The fear of losing life quality is why many smokers don’t want to quit smoking, but after the initial difficult time with withdrawal symptoms, it seems that life a a non smoker by no means is worse than life as a smoker. Quite the opposite actually, a study shows, which was recently published in the journal “Nicotine & Tobacco Research”. No ex-smokers regrets having stopped smoking, but what is important is to “survive” the first difficult time with withdrawal symptoms.

Out of the 879 ex-smokers, who took part in the survey, almost 70% felt that they were happier after they had quit smoking. Less than 4% were less happy and about 26% felt no change in their mood.

The results of the study fits with my experience: It is hard to find ex-smokers who regretted that they quit. It is rather easy to find smokers who regretted that they started in the first place.

It is a widespread myth, that if you quit smoking you will lose some life quality in return of a prolonged life. But for those smokers that fight through the withdrawal symptoms, the reward is actually two fold: sure, their life is prolonged, but they also feel free of dependence, feel more confident, have a lot more energy and receives recognition from their surrounding for their accomplishment. Ex-smokers are winners.

Focus on life quality rather than health

Shift the focus from all the harmful consequences of smoking to all the positive benefits of being a non-smoker is far more efficient, when trying to motivate people. It is not fear and pointing fingers that motivates people.

Instead, we are developing new methods in which we dont to focus on diseases and health, but rather on the improved life quality, which freedom from smoke brings. The methods were developed from experiments with advice on smoking cessation for cancer patients. They were excited, partly because they felt that with a smoking cessation they themselves made a difference. Rather than being part of the problem, they were now part of the solution instead.

Better in time

The increased satisfaction is more pronounced, the longer the time that has passed since they stopped smoking. But even with ex-smokers, where the smoking stop was quite new, it was still the majority who feel happier now. Younger ex-smokers was more excited after their cessation than older people. However it did not matter whether they were heavy smokers or only smoked a few cigarettes a day.

Quitting smoking is difficult, but Ingolf Ymer provides lots of tips on how to quit smoking - visit his website and download the free ebook: Quit Smoking Now.

The success or failure of mesothelioma treatments basically depends on the phase of cancer at the time of exposure. Several treatment methods including traditional and modern are followed by doctors. Sometimes a combination of two or three conventional therapies including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are used by physicians. Treatments enhance the lives of more than two-thirds of stage-1 and stage-2 patients by five years or more. Surgery has been doing the same in around 16% of the cases.

Surgical procedure involves removing the cancerous growth through incisions. Decortication or pleurectomy is the commonly used surgery in which the removal of chest lining is done. The surgery which removes the lining around the lungs, inside the chest, the hemi-diaphragm and pericardium is called the Extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP). This kind of surgery is not widely used.

If the disease is confined to a particular area, radiation is the best possible treatment available. It is also used after the operation as a consolidating treatment. The entire hemi-thorax is made to undergo radiation at times in consonance with chemotherapy. Thousands of mesothelioma patients are benefited out of these treatment processes. The preventive function of radiation ensures the stoppage of malignant cell from being spread. Chemotherapy, despite of its drawbacks has emerged as the best mesothelioma treatment in the present days. The treatment procedure is not so hard as radiation or surgery. But it is a lengthy process, physically and emotionally difficult for the patients to bear.

Immunotherapy, which strives to improve the immune response, has yielded vacillating results so far. Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy, in which drugs are heated to a certain degree of temperature before being administered, helps improved penetration of anti-cancer drugs. Researches are on to find alternative and more effective mesothelioma treatments.

There are certain factors to be taken into account before actually starting the treatment process. They are the age of the patient, the level of the disease and his overall health. Also the patient should be given sufficient opportunities to find the most appropriate treatment, its advantages and disadvantages, the cost involved, risk factors and the chances of cure. These days palliative treatment, which treats the symptoms not the causes, is also becoming popular. This method is opted where aggressive mesothelioma treatments are impossible.

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Being diagnosed with lung cancer can be very scary. Most people want to know their lung cancer prognosis. Knowing the prognosis can help you to understand your treatment and how you will deal with your diagnosis.

What is a Prognosis?

A lung cancer prognosis is an opinion backed by medical evidence as to what is likely to happen now that you have been diagnosed with lung cancer. The prognosis for each patient will be very individualized and can vary. The prognosis can vary due to:

* Type of cancer

* Cancer location

* Cancer stage

* The likelihood of the cancer spreading

* How old the patient is

* The patient’s general health

* How the patient responds to treatment

A lung cancer prognosis is simply an opinion, though. It is not an accurate prediction of what will exactly happen. It can take a little time for the doctor to create a good prognosis because it will be researched to ensure it is as accurate as possible.

Help from a Prognosis

The lung cancer prognosis can assist you to map the course of therapy, recognize what you have to change in your life as well as make judgment about where to go from here. The doctor will work with you to assist you understand what stage your cancer is at and how that will influence your therapy and your life.

Locating your Prognosis

You can use medical sites, and do searches to recognize information that will let you know your diagnosis.

It is essential, though, to keep an eye on misleading information on lung cancer. A crucial thing to remember is that people can make a web site about lung cancer prognosis and then publish the information, even if the prognosis is not accurate.

You must also keep in mind that not everyone will have the same experiences with lung cancer. The disease may run its course differently with different people.

Her name is Anne Durrel. She comes from California. She has written extensively on Lung Cancer . You may want to check out her other guide on cancer stages tips, and lung cancer facts guide!

Mesothelioma is a sort of cancer that’s almost always caused by being exposed to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura ( outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall ), but it might also occur in the peritoneum ( the liner of the intestinal cavity ), the heart, the pericardium ( a sac that surrounds the heart ) or tunica vaginalis.

Mesothelioma survival relies upon a wide variety of factors - the level of cancer, age and general health of the patient etc. A five-year scale is used by the experienced persons in mesothelioma research and treatment to calculate survival. Mesothelioma survival is so difficult that only around ten percent of the total patients diagnosed have reached the five-year target so far.

The chances of mesothelioma survival can be enhanced by vigorous and continued treatment. Depending on the response of the patient to the treatment chances of survival also varies. The treatment success is controlled by various factors. The most important thing is that success depends upon the stage of the cancer at the time of diagnosis. If the disease is detected early, the chances of survival and cure are more. The third and fourth stages have very little chances of survival, whereas the first and the second stages can be healed through chemotherapy and surgery.

The size of the tumor, the area in which it is formed, the level of excess fluid accumulated in the abdomen or chest, the age and general health level of the patient and the cell structure and type of cancer cells are the other important aspects that determine mesothelioma survival. There are mainly three types of mesothelioma cancer. While the first type, the pleural mesothelioma, affects the membranous sac lining the abdomen, the second, peritoneal cancer attacks the abdominal cavity and accounts to about seventy five percent and twenty percent respectively. But the third one, the pericardial, which is found in the area around the heart, is much more potent as a killer than the other two.

Alarming conclusions are reached by the medical community, which has analyzed the mesothelioma survival rates for the last few years. It has found that mesothelioma cancer infection is increasing all around the world. Also it has been found that chemotherapy is successful in cases where surgery is not effective. Researches are tirelessly working on more and more efficient strategies to defeat the fatal asbestos cancer, which has already destroyed the peace and happiness of many families by taking away their near and dear ones. The new treatment techniques invented give a fresh lease of hope for the victims.

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