Breast cancer affects one in eight women during their lives. Breast cancer kills more women in the United States than any cancer except lung cancer. No one knows why some women get breast cancer, but there is a number of risk factor.

As opposed to inherited genes, genetic mutations are recognized as one of the major causes of this disease. This one can be brought about by various environmental factors such as radiation exposure, which happens when a woman previously had a therapy or treatment.

Another aspect of urgent medical attention is that breast cancer is fully treatable if it is seen to early. In all women suffering from breast cancer, the tumor will undergo an initial benign stage. At this stage the tumor has not started its abnormal multiplication. If it is removed when it is benign, the cancer does not spread, and in most cases, the woman gets totally cured of the disease and leads a normal life. (more…)

As someone who has gone through a cancer diagnosis myself, I know that after focusing so much time and energy on treatment and on surviving, once treatment is finished, you find yourself at loose ends. Family and friends, relieved that it’s over are usually more than ready to get back to whatever normal was before your diagnosis. But like all heroines who are forced to fight battles in unknown lands, you have returned from your journey changed. While the physical geography of your outside world hasn’t changed, your interior landscape has.

Because of your cancer experience, you now know as never before how precious life is. And it begs the question: how do you want to spend the rest of your life? If you’re like many survivors, the answer is “thoughtfully.” Some of the women I work with following a cancer diagnosis turn their lives upside down, while others discover that their lives are exactly as they want them. Still others adjust certain areas of their lives, to find more fulfillment. But almost all of them, in my experience as a life, business and results coach, use their diagnosis as an opportunity to examine their lives. They look at what is working, what isn’t and begin navigating the next stage of their heroine’s journey. (more…)

Radiation therapy for ovarian cancer is a long recognized tool in destroying the tumors that are threatening your life. Unfortunately, this realization does not make dealing with side effects of radiation therapy for ovarian cancer any easier. The most commonly reported side effects of this therapy are three fold:

1. Nausea. This is felt almost immediately after radiation treatments and may last as long as five to eight hours. In some cases the body may begin by having preemptive nausea when you are ready to go to a radiation treatment appointment and you will already feel queasy even before you set foot into the treatment center. While there is little that may be done to prevent the nausea, there are some steps that may make it a bit easier to deal with: first and foremost, consider eating only bland foods sparingly on the day of your therapy appointment. Saltine crackers, Jell-O, or even thinned oatmeal may be sufficient to keep you from being overly hungry and from keeping your stomach to give you too much trouble. In severe cases, your doctor may prescribe medication to control your nausea. (more…)

Ovarian cancer is the 5th most common cancer in women after lung, breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. It accounts for only three percent of cancer in women, and fortunately there has been a decline in incidence of this type of cancer by about 1% over the last twenty years. Unfortunately, diagnosis is usually late as there are very subtle and often protean symptoms and signs. Ovarian cancer is not just a cancer of old age, it can occur at any age, even infancy, however, the incidence of this cancer does rise significantly after the age of 50.

There are certain risk factors for ovarian cancer, chief amongst them is family history and some associated genetic syndromes. A blood relative with ovarian cancer raises the risk for their female relative by 5% for this cancer. There is a syndrome of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer which occurs in one out of every 500 women and being an autosomal dominant genetic disorder results in BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 gene mutation. The other is Lynch II syndrome a hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer syndrome, again autosomal dominant, which increases risk for ovarian cancer by 12%. However, the majority of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have no family history and the etiology remains unknown. When ovarian cancer occurs and is not detected early when localized to one ovary, the cancer will usually spread to the unaffected ovary and uterus first, but can spread to the liver, lungs, adrenal glands, spleen and other intraperitoneal organs. (more…)

The kind of mesothelioma that is found in the peritonium region is named peritoneal mesothelioma. The peritonium is a membrane that lines the abdominal region of our body. Peritoneal mesothelioma represents a small number of all mesothelioma cases at about 30%. Patients that suffer from peritoneal mesothelioma are commonly found to have been exposed to asbestos over a period of time in the past.

The duration of exposure necessary needed for peritoneal mesothelioma to result is unknown. Abdominal pain, swelling and lumps in the abdominal as well as anemia are just a quantity of of the symptoms of this kind of cancer. Almost all patients suffering from peritoneal mesothelioma will lose their lives to it in the end.

A cure has not been found and efforts are regularly made in the region of lengthening life expectancy. The way asbestos affects the peritonium is how the cells of the membrane react to the fibers themselves. The cells begin to divide at a very high rate causing the membrane to thicken. (more…)

One of the main reasons why most breast cancer patients are not surviving this treatment is because they do not know that they have this disease in the first place. Because of this, they were not able to undergo treatments in order to stop the growth of cancer early on. With this the following are the signs of breast cancer you should be aware of.

The most common signs of breast cancer are the lumps that you can feel when you have been doing some self examinations on your breasts. The doctors will be able to feel this once your doctor does a physical exam on you during your physical exam. Once they have felt a lump, they will have it tested in order to find out if it is a malignant or benign tumor. Just the same, doctors will be able to check out on mass growth on the breasts through routine mammograms. In this way, they would see whether there are some malignant formations that cannot be felt by the hand.

Other signs that you should watch out for on your breast is the size and the shape. With this, you can try to suspect that the immediate change might be caused by cancer cells growing in your breasts. Aside from this, the breasts’ skin should also be checked for any markings or dimpling. (more…)

There is no known cure for cancer yet but in efforts to find a cure, a hope for one was found. In a recent study conducted by the researchers of University of Florida, it was discovered that 86% of the laboratory-cultured cancer cells self-destructed when administered with acai berry extracts. This is among the first studies which aimed to analyze the fruit’s potency in countering the development and effects of cancer cells. However, this in-vitro study is limited only to leukemia cells. Apart from this, nothing else is known in the relationship between acai berry and cancer.

The results of the study were promising. However, it should be clearly emphasized that the compounds extracted from the acai berry are not sufficient to provide a cure yet.

Instead, they only showed that leukemia cells can be triggered to initiate self-destruction. Nonetheless, most compounds tested in laboratory settings often demonstrate desirable results when tested on actual human bodies. It should also be noted that the same experiment was conducted with other fruits that have certain antioxidants. Most of these fruits have shown remarkable effects. (more…)

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that is associated with exposure to asbestos. The disease is a brutal form of cancer because it is very hard to discover and often only is diagnosed in the very late stages. At that point, treatment is often very difficult for a host of reasons. To give you an idea of how difficult, we cover one maddening complication in this article.

Mesothelioma is the cancer of the mesothelium from which it derives its name. The mesothelium is a lining found in the chest and abdomen that acts more or less as a protective sheath for organs such as the heart and lungs. While cancer of the lungs can be easily identified, the same cannot be said for identifying it in the thin lining surrounding them. This is what makes Mesothelioma so deadly. It usually only discovered very late, often after it has grown for 20, 30, 40 years or more.

The cancer is most often found around the Mesothelioma lining of the lungs. To diagnose it, the physicians usually must take a biopsy of the material in the area. This is done by creating a small incision and then inserting the relevant medical tool. A small amount of material is then snipped off, extracted and sent to the pathology office for examination under a microscope. It sounds simple, but here is where the difficulty in dealing with Mesothelioma rears its head. (more…)

One of the main reasons why more and more women are not surviving breast cancer is because of not detecting them in an earlier manner. Because of the increasing number of women who are having breast cancer these days, women now are being asked to do breast cancer screening. In this way, women will know whether they have breast cancer and treat them early on.

However, many women do not really know how to do breast cancer screening. They are thinking that breast cancer screening may only be done in one way. However, many are not aware that there are several ways in doing cancer screening.

This type of cancer screening that is most popular among women is the one being done by physicians during routine check ups. In this process, the doctor will feel the breasts if there are lumps. Aside from this manual checkup, the doctor can issue a request in order to do several radiological or ultrasonic screening in laboratories. These are the machines being manipulated by professionals that would do several physical screening in order to see if there are lumps that cannot be felt. (more…)

More than 95% of colorectal cancers come from adenocarcinoma polyps. These cancers start in cells that form mucus glands, which lubricate the colon and rectum. A polyp is a group of cells that form on top of each other and may eventually turn cancerous. Carcinoid tumors, gastrointestinal stromal tumors and lymphomas also cause 5% of colon cancers. Doctors say the best way to prevent colon cancer is to undergo regular screening tests after the age of 50 and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Before talking about colon cancer prevention, let’s talk a little about what colon cancer is, exactly. Both the colon and rectum are part of the digestive system. The first part of the digestive system, which is the esophagus and stomach, breaks down food to be processed into energy. Next, the broken down food travels to the small intestine/bowel, which is a narrow, 20-foot section that continues breaking down food and absorbing most of the nutrients. The small intestine then sends the remaining material to the five-foot-long colon (which is also referred to as “the large intestine”), where it absorbs salt and water and stores waste. The first part of the colon is the ascending colon, which is attached to the small intestine and the appendix on the right side of the abdomen. The transverse colon runs from the right to the left side of the upper abdomen. The descending colon travels downward on the left side and the sigmoid colon is an S-shaped portion that passes food matter down to the rectum, the final six inches of the digestive system, which will pass food out of the body through the anus. No one is really sure what exactly causes a colon cancer cell to develop in the first place, or why some experience a colon cancer recurrence, but research suggests a variety of lifestyle, hereditary and environmental factors are at play. (more…)