Categories
Ailmemts & Remedies

Bone Cancer

Definition:
Cancer that starts in a bone is rare.Bone cancer can begin in any bone in the body, but it most commonly affects the long bones that make up the arms and legs.

Primary bone cancer is cancer that forms in cells of the bone. Some types of primary bone cancer are osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, and chondrosarcoma. Secondary bone cancer is cancer that spreads to the bone from another part of the body (such as the prostate, breast, or lung).

Some types of bone cancer occur primarily in children, while others affect mostly adults.

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Bone cancer also doesn’t include blood cell cancers, such as multiple myeloma and leukemia, that begin in the bone marrow — the jelly-like material inside the bone where blood cells are made.

Symptoms:
The symptoms of bone cancer depend where the tumour grows (about half occur in or near the knee). By the time a lump or swelling is detectable, the cancer may have been present for some time. (Swelling and tenderness near the affected area)

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Pain, especially at night, is a common problem and may cause a limp if the leg is affected, because weight-bearing is uncomfortable or the cancer interferes with the way the joints work.

There may also be generalised symptoms such as weight loss, sweats, fever and lethargy , tiredness or fatigue. Sometimes, bone cancer is discovered incidentally – when an x-ray is taken after an accident, for example – or occasionally when the bone breaks due to weakness caused by the cancer.

Weakened bones, sometimes leading to fractures.

Causes:
It’s not clear what causes most bone cancers. Doctors know bone cancer begins as an error in a cell’s DNA. The error tells the cell to grow and divide in an uncontrolled way. These cells go on living, rather than dying at a set time. The accumulating mutated cells form a mass (tumor) that can invade nearby structures or spread to other areas of the body.

Unlike most cancers, bone cancer tends to affect the young. Osteosarcoma usually appears in children and young adults, while Ewing’s sarcoma is most common between the ages of 10 and 20.

Other risk factors include:

•Previous radiotherapy treatment, especially at a young age. Some chemotherapy drugs also increase the risk of osteosarcoma
•As many as one in eight people who develop a tumour of the eye will go on to develop an osteosarcoma, possibly because of a genetic susceptibility to both conditions and the additional effect of anti-cancer treatments
•Genetic conditions linked to bone tumours including Li-Fraumeni syndrome, HME, inherited breast cancer and congenital umbilical hernia (Ewing’s sarcoma is three times more common in children with this condition)
•Paget’s disease, a bone disease that generally occurs in older people and increases the risk of osteosarcoma, as does another bone condition called chondroma
•Bone cancer has often been linked to injuries to a limb, but it’s questionable and may simply be that the injury draws attention to a tumour that was already growing

Diagnosis:
Imaging tests :-
What imaging tests you undergo depends on your situation. Your doctor may recommend one or more imaging tests to evaluate the area of concern, including:

*Bone scan
*Computerized tomography (CT)
*Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
*Positron emission tomography (PET)
*X-ray
Removing a sample of tissue for laboratory testing
Your doctor may recommend a procedure to remove (biopsy) a sample of tissue from the tumor for laboratory testing. Testing can tell your doctor whether the tissue is cancerous and, if so, what type of cancer you have. Testing may also reveal the cancer’s grade, which helps doctors understand how aggressive the cancer may be.

Types of biopsy procedures used to diagnose bone cancer include:

*Inserting a needle through your skin and into a tumor. During a needle biopsy, your doctor inserts a thin needle through your skin and guides it into the tumor. The needle is used to remove small pieces of tissue from the tumor.

*Surgery to remove a tissue sample for testing. During a surgical biopsy, your doctor makes an incision through your skin and removes either the entire tumor (excisional biopsy) or a portion of the tumor (incisional biopsy).

Determining the type of biopsy you need and the particulars of how it should be performed requires careful planning by your medical team. Doctors need to perform the biopsy in a way that won’t interfere with future surgery to remove bone cancer. For this reason, ask your doctor for a referral to an appropriate surgeon before your biopsy.

Tests to determine the extent (stage) of the bone cancer
Once your doctor diagnoses your bone cancer, he or she works to determine the extent (stage) of your cancer. The cancer’s stage guides your treatment options.

Stages of bone cancer include:

*Stage I. At this stage, bone cancer is limited to the bone and hasn’t spread to other areas of the body. After biopsy testing, cancer at this stage is considered low grade and is not considered aggressive.

*Stage II. This stage of bone cancer is limited to the bone and hasn’t spread to other areas of the body. But biopsy testing reveals the bone cancer is high grade and is considered aggressive.

*Stage III. At this stage, bone cancer occurs in two or more places on the same bone.

*Stage IV. This stage of bone cancer indicates that cancer has spread beyond the bone to other areas of the body, such as the brain, liver or lungs.

Treatment:
The treatment options for your bone cancer are based on the type of cancer you have, the stage of the cancer, how far it has spread, your overall health and your preferences. Bone cancer treatment typically involves surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of treatments.

Bone cancer that hasn’t spread outside the bone may be treated with surgery and may not require chemotherapy. More abnormal bone cancer that has spread will be more difficult to treat, and chemotherapy as well as surgery is usually recommended.

In general, treatment of bone cancer has a good outlook, especially if it’s in the early stages and can be completed during surgery. About two-thirds of people with primary bone cancer can be cured. But if the cancer is more advanced or has spread, the prognosis may not be so good, with five-year survival rates of only 10-20 per cent. It’s vital that you talk to your specialist to get a picture of how successful treatment is likely to be in your individual case.

Treatment usually consists of surgery often combined with chemotherapy to shrink the tumour and make it less likely to recur. Because surgery involves removing bone, it can be quite drastic. Where possible, the surgeon will try to replace the diseased bone with a graft of bone from elsewhere in the body or an implant, but sometimes amputation is necessary.

Some bone cancers, such as Ewing’s sarcoma, respond well to chemotherapy and other treatments such as radiotherapy.

Newer biological therapies based on natural body chemicals such as interferon are also being used. These may work, for example, by encouraging the body’s immune system to attack the cancer cells. A number of different research trials are looking at different combinations of these treatments in an effort to improve results.

After initial treatment, regular follow-ups are essential to check for recurrences and to manage the consequences of treatment, such as the use of an artificial limb.

You may click to see:-
*Bone and Tissue Transplantation
*Bone Sarcoma in the Upper Extremity
*Ewing’s Family of Tumors (PDQ)…(Also available in Spanish)

*Osteosarcoma/Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma of Bone (PDQ) …..(Also available in Spanish)

*Surgical Management of Cancer that Spreads to the Bone

*Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty

Prevention, Genetics, Causes:-
Information related to prevention, genetics, and risk factors:

Understanding Gene Testing

Search: Cancer Genetics Services Directory

Cancer Genetics Overview
[ health professional ]

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

Resources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/in_depth/cancer/typescancer_bone.shtml
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bone-cancer/DS00520/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/bone

http://bone-cancer-symptoms.org/

http://www.beltina.org/health-dictionary/bone-cancer-symptoms-prognosis-treatment-survival-rate-primary-metastatic.html

Pain In Bones? Fear For Bone Cancer!

http://www.cancersymptomspage.com/bone-cancer-symptoms.html

Categories
Featured Healthy Tips

When ‘Baby Fat’ is Good for Health

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Want to shed your baby fat? Wait, don’t do it just yet, for a new study has revealed that such a fat is good – as long as it is calorie-burning -”Brown Fat”.

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Brown fat burns off calories and generates heat in babies and small mammals.

Most of the body fat is white fat, which also provides insulation but stores calories. It becomes “bad” fat when an individual have too much. The “good” fat-brown fat-was considered essentially nonexistent in human adults.

The new study has found that adults have much more of this type of fat than previously believed.

“We now know that it is present and functional in adults,” said the study’s lead author, Dr Aaron Cypess, MMSc, of the Joslin Diabetes Centre in Boston.

“Three ounces of brown fat can burn several hundred calories a day,” he added.

In the new study involving 1,970 study participants, researchers measured the patches of brown adipose tissue-brown fat-in people with the help of high-tech imaging method that combines positron emission tomography and computed tomography, called PET/CT.

By evaluating biopsy tissue of what appeared to be brown fat, the authors confirmed that they were, indeed, looking at stores of brown fat.

The researchers found that brown fat was located in an area extending from the front of the neck to the chest.

Of the subjects who had detectable brown fat, about 6 percent had 3 ounces or more of the fat.

“We believe that this percentage greatly underestimates the number of adults in the population who have a large amount of brown fat,” said Cypess.

They also discovered that brown fat is most abundant in young women and least frequent in older, overweight men. In fact, women were more than twice as likely as men to have substantial amounts of brown fat.

“One theory for this is that women may have less muscle mass overall, so they need more brown fat to generate heat and keep warm,” Cypess said.

Source: The study appears in New England Journal of Medicine.

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Categories
Healthy Tips News on Health & Science

Drinking Milk is Good for Health.

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Drinking milk ‘cuts risk of dying from heart disease and stroke by one fifth’..say Scientists
Contrary to reports that milk harms health, they claim consumption could reduce the risk of succumbing to chronic illness by as much as a fifth.
Scientists at Reading and Cardiff universities reviewed 324 studies on the effects of milk consumption.

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Healthy stuff: Drinking just a third of a pint of milk daily can benefit health.

They found milk protects against developing most diseases, apart from prostate cancer, and can cut deaths from illnesses by 15 to 20 per cent.
Reading University‘s Professor Ian Givens said milk had more to offer than just building strong bones and helping growth.
‘Our review made it possible to assess whether increased milk consumption provides a survival advantage or not,’ he said. ‘We believe it does.
‘When the numbers of deaths from coronary heart disease, stroke and colo-rectal cancer were taken into account, there is strong evidence of an overall reduction in the risk of dying.

‘We found no evidence milk might increase the risk of developing conditions, with the exception of prostate cancer. ‘


The White Stuff: Milk doesn’t just build healthy bones

The reviewers say that encouraging greater milk consumption might eventually reduce NHS treatment costs because of lower levels of chronic disease.
‘There is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms involved and for focused studies to confirm the epidemiological evidence since this topic has major implications for the agri-food industry‘ said Professor Givens.


Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1201474/Drinking-milk-cuts-risk-dying-heart-disease-stroke-fifth.html#ixzz0M699ngRY

 
Categories
Diagnonistic Test

Transrectal Ultrasound and Biopsy of the Prostate

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What is the test?
Your doctor is likely to recommend this test if you’ve had a rectal exam or blood tests that suggest that you might have prostate cancer. For this test, a urologist takes tissue samples from several places in your prostate, to be examined for cancer. A transrectal ultrasound helps the urologist see the prostate during the procedure.

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How do you prepare for the test?
Some doctors recommend that you have an enema before the test. Tell your doctor if you have any allergies, especially to antibiotics.

What happens when the test is performed?
In most cases, you lie on your side with your knees bent up to your chest. An ultrasound machine’s sensor-a short rod about the width around of two fingers-is covered with a condom and clear jelly and gently inserted into your rectum. You may feel some pressure similar to the sensation before a bowel movement. Once the sensor is in place, an image of your prostate appears on a video screen.

The ultrasound sensor surveys the whole prostate gland and pinpoints specific areas for biopsy. Then the doctor removes this ultrasound sensor and replaces it with a slightly smaller one. In addition to generating an ultrasound image, the smaller sensor has a small tube on its side called a needle guide. Your doctor points the needle guide at specific parts of your prostate. The guide releases a spring-loaded needle to take biopsies from different parts of the prostate. The spring-loading allows this needle to move into and out of the prostate very quickly. You are likely to feel some discomfort from each biopsy, but because the needle moves so quickly, any pain lasts only for a second at a time. Doctors usually collect multiple samples.Your doctor will probably give you antibiotics at the end of this procedure to prevent infection.

What risks are there from the test?
Many people have some blood in their urine or stool for a day or two after the biopsy. The only significant risk is the possibility of an infection in the prostate, but antibiotics can help prevent this.

Must you do anything special after the test is over?
Call your doctor if you develop a fever.

How long is it before the result of the test is known?
A pathologist will examine the biopsies under a microscope for cancer. This process usually requires several days.

For more knowledge & information you may click :-http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/457757-overview

Source:https://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/diagnostics/transrectal-ultrasound-and-biopsy-of-the-prostate.shtml

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News on Health & Science

Major Confusion on How to Do Breast Checks

Is there a right way to check your breasts for early signs of cancer? Many women remain confused as experts now say there is no evidence that rigorous monthly “self-examination” — widely recommended in the United States — reduces breast cancer deaths. Plus, it can lead to unnecessary biopsies.
………………………..
Two large studies looking at a total of more than 388,000 women found that death rates from breast cancer were the same among women who rigorously self-examined as those who did not, while there were almost twice the number of biopsy operations in the self-examination group.

According to some experts, the best way for a woman to check her breasts is not to follow a strict examination routine, but to get to know what is normal, and feel them regularly for signs of any changes.

Resources:
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews July 2008, Issue 3
BBC News July 15, 2008

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