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Breast Cancer Essay

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What is cancer?
Cancer is a number of diseases in which irregular cells divide without control and are able to penetrate other tissues. Cancer cells spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems. As mentioned before cancer is not one disease but a number of diseases which spread over the body. There are more than 100 types of cancer which happen in different places in the body. Most type of cancers are named after the organ or tissue the cancer has taken place in. For example, if the tumor begins in the lung, it is called lung cancer. If it begins in the breast, it is called breast cancer. Cancer can be split into wider categories such as:
1. Carcinoma: This type of cancer begins in the skin or tissues that are around …show more content…

A pathologist examines it and takes measurements, color, shape, etc. Before the tissue is examined by the microscope, the pathologist cuts the specimen into slim portions and stains it with different types of dyes to show parts of the cell. Then, it is viewed in the microscope. There are two ways to observe the specimen (The permanent and frozen section). To create permanent section, the specimen is placed in a fixative so that the cells become fixed and don’t change. They are kept there for several hours. To make the frozen section, the physician quickly freezes the specimen after it has been removed from the patient’s body and after that the specimen is cut into small slices by a device called the cryostat. This is a quicker way but it is often not as good as the permanent section. The common terms used to classify a patient’s results …show more content…

These are:
1. Radiation: This type of treatment is also called radiotherapy. In this treatment high energy rays are focused on cancer cells. Radiotherapy uses high energy gamma rays to kill cancer cells which are made in a special machine. The goal of this treatment is to cause damage to the cancer molecules and lead them to commit suicide.
2. Gene Therapy: Gene Therapy is a new found area in the field of treatments of cancer. This type of treatment has been done before, but the results are not very successful. In this treatment, damaged genes are replaced with normal genes. If conducted correctly this can treat cancer very nicely as the damaged genes are a key in treating cancer.
3. Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy is used to boost the immune system to target cancer cell. This treatment is also new to the field of treatments of cancer.
4. Chemotherapy: This treatment is the most common way of treating cancer although it has many diverse side effects like vomiting, fatigue, weakness in the body and hair loss. The goal of chemotherapy is to use chemicals that stop the procedure of cell division of irregular cells, DNA or impaired proteins so that the irregular cells commit

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There are many deadly disease that affect human life. one of the most deadly disease is cancer. Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues.(4) Cancer cells can also spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.(4) There are many types of cancer and one of the most dangerous one is skin cancer. Skin cancer effect millions of people around the world every year.

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If this comes back positive a radical lymph node dissection will be necessary, this may be followed by radiation, depending on the number of nodes affected (Hodgetts, 2013). In the treatment of stage IV tumors there are many methods used. Tumors and lymph nodes may be surgically removed. Patients may also be treated with radiation, immunotherapy, chemotherapy or targeted therapy. At this stage the disease is very hard to cure due to metastasis.

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According to Gerber (2008, p.312) the drugs involved in targeted therapy works initially by preventing the growth of cancerous cells. Targeted therapy interrupts the specific molecules which are required for growth and development of a tumor. It blocks the proliferation of cancer cells. Gerber’s (2008, p.311) studies show that the targeted therapy drugs are used to treat many malignancies including breast, colorectal, lung and pancreatic cancers as well as lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myelomas. The main two types of targeted therapy include monoclonal antibodies and small molecule inhibitors.

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There are 3 main treatment methods hold in the world: Radiation therapy; Surgical therapy; Chemoradiation therapy. The first one is effective when the tumour is less than 1cm thickness. But the usual therapy is the combination with radiation and chemotherapy which mentioned as third one above. The serious case would drive the surgery but the

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Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses chemicals to kill cancer cells. The drugs are most often given through a vein, after that the chemotherapy chemicals travel throughout your body. It can also help people with bone cancer that has spread beyond the bone to other areas in the body. Radiation therapy is also an option. Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams of energy to kill cancer cells.

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I found out that my grandmother died of breast cancer when I was quite young. I never fully understood what breast cancer or any type of cancer was. I never wanted to read anything she wrote about her breast cancer because I thought it was too sad until this year when I thought of becoming an oncologist. I realized that I should learn more about cancer, so why not start with something I could possible get. My first question was what is breast cancer and the causes of it?

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