Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Skin Cancer

                       


It is a standout amongst the most widely recognized sort of a tumour. With early discovery and treatment, skin growth is exceptionally reparable. The most well-known cautioning indications of a skin tumour incorporate changes in size, shape, or shade of a mole or other skin sore or the presence of another development on the skin. Reasonable cleaned individuals are especially defenceless to growing most types of skin disease since they create less melanin. Melanin, the defensive colour in the external layer of skin (epidermis), shields the skin from bright (UV) light. Nonetheless, skin tumour likewise can create in dim cleaned individuals and in individuals whose skin has not had noteworthy sun introduction. Skin growths may likewise create a long time after x-beam treatment or presentation to substances that reason malignancy (for instance, ingestion of arsenic).     

                                                                 
The three main types of skin cancer are
·         Basal cell carcinoma
·         Squamous cell carcinoma
·         Melanoma
Less common types of skin cancer are
·         Paget disease of the nipple or extramammary Paget (usually near the anus).
·         Kaposi sarcoma
·         Merkel cell carcinoma
·         Atypical fibroxanthomas

Symptoms
Most skin cancers are curable, especially when treated at an early stage. At first, skin cancers do not cause any symptoms.
·         Basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) usually presents as a raised, smooth, pearly bump on the sun-exposed skin of the head, neck or shoulders. Sometimes small blood vessels can be seen within a tumour.
·         Squamous-cell skin cancer (SCC) is commonly a red, scaling, thickened patch on the sun-exposed skin. Some are firm hard nodules and dome-shaped like keratoacanthomas.  Ulceration and bleeding may occur.
·         Most melanomas consist of various colours from shades of brown to black. A small number of melanoma are pink, red or fleshy in colour; these are called amelanotic melanoma and tend to be more aggressive.
             

Causes
·         Ultraviolet radiation from sun exposure is the primary environmental cause of skin cancer.
·         Smoking tobacco.
·         HPV infections increase the risk of squamous-cell skin cancer
·         Some genetic syndromes.
·         Chronic non-healing wounds.
·         Ionizing radiation such as X-rays, environmental carcinogens, 
Diagnosis
Non-invasive skin cancer detection methods include photography, dermoscopy, sonography, confocal microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, terahertz spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, the multispectral imaging technique, thermography, electrical bio-impedance, tape stripping and computer-aided analysis.
Treatment
Larger or more invasive cancer may require removal of a significant amount of skin, which may have to be replaced with a skin graft or a skin flap.
·         With a skin graft, a piece of skin is removed from another area of the person's body, typically where the skin is loose. The piece of skin is sewn onto the area where the cancer was removed.
·         With a skin flap, doctors transfer skin from an adjacent area to replace the area where the cancer was removed. With a flap, but not with a graft, the transferred skin is not cut completely free, so it still has its own blood supply. Also, a flap is usually thicker than a graft. Other treatment methods include,

Topical medications, destruction by electrodesiccation and curettage (EDC), surgical excision, radiation therapy, Mohs micrographic surgery.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Cancer and Treatment

                                       
Cancer is the collection of diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body. When cancer develops, cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumours. Cancerous tumours are malignant, which means they can spread into, or invade nearby tissues. Unlike malignant tumours, benign tumours do not spread into, or invade nearby tissues.
There are many types of cancer treatment. The types of treatment that you receive will depend on the type of cancer you have and how advanced it is. Your treatment depends on where your cancer is, how big it is, whether it has spread, and your general health. There are different types of treatment you might have. Understanding your treatment and the side effects can help you to cope. Some people with cancer will have only one treatment. But most people have a combination of treatments, such as surgery with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
                              
When used to treat cancer, surgery is a procedure in which removes cancer from your body. Surgery means removing tissue from the body. Surgery is not used for some types of cancer of the blood system (leukaemia) and also some types of cancer of the lymphatic system (lymphoma). Sometimes surgery is not possible because of the position of a tumour. For example, if a tumour is near a blood vessel or other delicate tissue.

 

 

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours. Radiotherapy means the use of radiation, usually X-rays, to treat illness. Radiotherapy destroys the cancer cells in the treated area by damaging the DNA within these cells. Although normal cells are also affected by radiation, they are better at repairing themselves than the cancer cells.  Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair stop dividing or die. When the damaged cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body. Mainly two types a) External Beam Radiation Therapy b)Internal Radiation Therapy.


Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells, which grow and divide quickly. Chemotherapy can be used to cure cancer, lessen the chance it will return, or stop or slow its growth. Chemotherapy can be used to shrink tumours that are causing pain and other problems. They work throughout your body and are called a systemic treatment

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer.  The immune system is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy. Biological therapy is a type of treatment that uses substances made from living organisms to treat cancer. Which includes Checkpoint inhibitors, Adoptive cell transfer,  Monoclonal antibodies, Treatment vaccines, Cytokines, and BCG.

Targeted Therapy

Targeted therapy is the foundation of precision medicine. It is a type of cancer treatment that targets the changes in cancer cells that help them grow, divide, and spread.  Small-molecule drugs are small enough to enter cells easily, so they are used for targets that are inside cells.  Monoclonal antibodies are drugs that are not able to enter cells easily. Instead, they attach to specific targets on the outer surface of cancer cells.

                                   

Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that slows or stops the growth of cancer that uses hormones to grow. Hormone therapy is also called hormonal therapy, hormone treatment, or endocrine therapy.  Hormone therapy can lessen the chance that cancer will return or stop or slow its growth.  It may also be used to reduce or prevent symptoms in men with prostate cancer who are not able to have surgery or radiation therapy.

Stem Cell Transplants

Stem cell transplants are procedures that restore blood-forming stem cells in people who have had theirs destroyed by the very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy that are used to treat certain cancers. Blood-forming stem cells are important because they grow into different types of blood cells. The main types of blood cells are WBC, RBC and platelets.
Bone Marrow transplants
The bone marrow transplant is a way of giving very high dose chemotherapy, sometimes with whole body radiotherapy. This treatment aims to try to cure some types of blood cancer such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Precision Medicine

Precision medicine is an approach to patient care that allows doctors to select treatments that are most likely to help patients based on a genetic understanding of their disease. This may also be called personalized medicine. The idea of precision medicine is not new, but recent advances in science and technology have helped speed up the pace of this area of research. Currently, if you need treatment for cancer, you may receive a combination of treatments, including surgerychemotherapyradiation therapy, and immunotherapy

Other Treatments

Radiofrequency ablation, Laser treatment, High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), Photodynamic therapy, Cryotherapy, Ultraviolet light treatment.  Gene therapy.


Join #Cancer Targets 2018 going to be held in Dubai UAE On 5-6 December 2018






















Cancer Immunotherapy

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