Complete Health Tips

Posts Tagged ‘cancer cells’

There are three ways that cancer can spread in the body:
* Grow and invade nearby tissue or surrounding it.
* Traveling through the network of the lymphatic system to other distant parts of the body.
* Through the blood vessels to distant places also.

Doctors divide prostate cancer in 4 steps. A higher number, more advanced the cancer.
1. Cancer is too small to notice in the rectal examination or imaging studies. No symptoms. It lies within the prostate.
2. The tumor is still localized within the prostate, but is already large enough to be detected during rectal examination or imaging studies. Usually no symptoms yet.
3. Cancer cells have gone beyond the outer layer of the prostate and invade nearby tissues. At this stage it is common to have difficulty urinating.
4. Cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes and have been planted elsewhere in the body, including in the rectum, bladder, bone, liver and lungs. In addition to difficulty urinating, may have bone pain, weight loss and exhaustion.

Your doctor may choose different ways to manage your cancer:
* Surveillance expectant
* Surgery
* Radiation
* Cryotherapy
* Hormone therapy
* Chemotherapy

With radiation therapy, is achieved by damaging or destroying cancer cells through extensive treatment of X-rays. Although not a cure for mesothelioma, radiation may be used at various stages of treatment of malignant mesothelioma. Often, radiation is the main treatment for patients with health problems. Radiation can also be used to eliminate small formations of cancer cells that surgery might overlook. When radiation is used in conjunction with surgery, radiation is known as adjuvant.

* External beam radiation
The form of radiation therapy is best known external irradiation. A machine similar to X-ray focusing intense beams of light directly to the tumor, but from outside the body, thus ending the cancer cells under the skin.

* Internal Radiation (Brachytherapy)
When the radiation source is placed inside the body, radiation therapy is called brachytherapy. In the case of mesothelioma, the active materials are placed directly into the chest or abdomen.