The Major Types Of Cancer And Their Treatments

Types Of Cancer And Its Treatments?

The types of cancers have one thing in common. The cells growing in an uncontrolled way. And as we all know, cells are the basic components of the human body. It occurs when cells develop abnormally as well as grow in an uncontrolled way. Here we are going to know more about some types of cancer and how these cancers can be treated.

Skin Cancer

Cancers that arise from the skin are called skin cancers. The development of abnormal cells that attain the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body cause them. The three major types of skin cancers namely basal cell skin cancer (BCC), squamous cell skin cancer (SCC) and melanoma. Basal cell cancer usually grows slowly and damage the tissue around them, but usually, does not spread to distant areas or result in death. It often appears as an ulcer or an unusual bump on the skin. On the other hand, squamous-cell cancer is more likely to spread. It usually presents as a hard lump with a scaly top but may also form an ulcer. Melanomas are the most aggressive. Signs include a mole that has changed in size, shape, color, has irregular edges, has more than one color, is itchy or bleeds.

Breast Cancer

Breast cancer refers to a malignant tumor which has developed from cells in the breast. This either begins in the cells of the lobules, that are the milk-producing glands, or the ducts, or the passages that drain milk from the lobules to the nipple. Breast cancer can begin in the stromal tissues, that include the fibrous and fatty connective tissues of the breast. Over time, the cancer cells can invade nearby healthy breast tissue and then make their way into the underarm lymph nodes, the small organs that filter out foreign substances in your body. If cancer cells get into your lymph nodes, then they then have a pathway into other parts of your body as well. The breast cancer’s stage refers to how far the cancer cells have spread that is beyond the original tumor

Lung Cancer

Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma is a malignant lung tumor that is characterized by the uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If it is left untreated, this growth can even spread beyond the lung by the process of metastasis to the nearby tissue or the other parts of the body. Most of the cancers that start in the lung, known as primary lung cancers, they are carcinomas.

There are two main types

1. small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) 2. non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) The most common symptoms are coughing that includes coughing up blood, shortness of breath, weight loss, and chest pains

Blood Cancer

Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid malignancies or the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues are tumors that affect the blood, lymph, bone marrow, and lymphatic system. Since those elements are all intimately connected through both the immune system and the circulatory system, a disease affecting one might often affect the others as well, that makes myeloproliferative and lymphoproliferation. Thus the leukemias and the lymphomas are closely related and often overlapping problems. While the uncommon in solid tumors, chromosomal translocations being a common cause of these diseases, this commonly leads to a different approach in diagnosis.

Types Of Treatment

There are numerous types of cancer treatment and the types of treatment that you receive will depend on the type of cancer you’ve and how advanced it is. The main types of cancer treatment are:

Surgery

Numerous people with cancer have surgery if cancer seems to be contained in one area that is if the cancer is localized especially. Surgery is used to remove it along with any nearby tissue which might contain cancer cells. At times it is hard to tell how much surgery is needed until the surgeon examines the extent of cancer amid the operation. As said, this treatment is the most successful when the tumor has not spread to other areas.

Radiation Therapy

Similar to surgery, radiation therapy is also used mostly to treat the localized cancers those are contained in one area. The radiation damages cancer cells or destroys them so they can’t grow. It can also be used alone or along with the surgery or chemotherapy. At some point more than half of all people with cancer get radiation

Types:

• External radiation: Painless, much like having an x-ray taken. Treatment is most often given 5 days in a week for 5 – 8 weeks, which depends on the size, type, and place of cancer being treated.
• Radiation implants: Radiation may be given through implants in some cases placed inside the body.

Chemotherapy

This is a treatment with strong drugs that are most often given by injection or by mouth. In most cases, more than one chemo drug is being used. Unlike surgery or radiation therapy chemo drugs can treat cancers that have spread throughout the body as they travel through the bloodstream. It is given for different reasons, depending on the type of cancer as well as its stage. Chemo can be used to:

• Cure cancer.
• Kill cancer cells that may have already spread.
• Keep it from spreading.
• Slow cancer’s growth.
• Shrink a tumor before surgery is done to remove it.
• Relieve symptoms caused by cancer.
• Lower the risk of cancer coming back after surgery.

Immunotherapy

They are sometimes called as Biologic therapies. These treatments use your body’s immune system to lessen the side effects of some cancer treatments or to fight cancer. Different biologic therapies act in different ways. Also, they can slow down or stop cancer cell growth, help repair normal cells damaged, help healthy immune cells control cancer by other forms of cancer treatment.

Targeted Therapies

They are drugs that target the specific gene changes which help cancer cells grow. And then they attack the inner workings of cancer cells that are the parts that make them different from normal and healthy cells.

Alternative Treatments

These treatments are used instead of standard medical care. They have not been proven safe yet, and clinical trials have not proven that they work so far. Some of these methods may even be harmful. Sometimes, the biggest danger is that you can lose the chance to benefit from your standard treatment. The delays or interruptions in your medical treatments might give cancer more time to grow as well as make it less likely that treatment will help.

Is cancer contagious?

A healthy person can’t catch cancer from someone who has it. Still, there is no evidence that a close contact or things like kissing, sex, touching, sharing meals, or else breathing the same air can spread cancer from one person to another person. But there are some possibilities where even cancer can be contagious such as

Organ transplant

There have been only some cases so far in which organ transplants from people with cancer have caused cancer in the person who got the organ. But there is a major factor that makes this possible. If people who get organ transplants take medications that weaken their immune systems, this might happen. This seems to be the main reason that in a transplanted organ, cancer can, in rare cases, give cancer to the person who received the organ. So, nowadays, the organ donors are carefully screened to reduce this risk.

During Pregnancy

Even if a woman has cancer amid her pregnancy, cancer rarely directly affects the fetus. Few cancers can spread from the mother to the placenta, but most cancers cannot affect the fetus. In very rare cases, melanoma which is a form of skin cancer that has been found to spread to the placenta as well as the fetus. If cancer were contagious, then we would have cancer epidemics similar to the flu epidemics. We would expect a high rate of cancer among the friends and families of cancer patients as well as among health professionals because of their exposure to the disease. So, this is certainly not the case. Even today, friends, families, and co-workers of people with cancer stay away sometimes when they learn about the disease. And, as a result, people with cancer often say they feel alone and isolated. You don’t have to stay away from someone who has cancer as you cannot catch it from them. They need your visits and support. So never be afraid to visit a person with cancer.