Author: Zain Syed

I am a Pharmacist specializing in oncology and pain management. I have worked in various settings, including Infusion, Clinic, Inpatient, Outpatient, and Investigational Drug Services. The lack of access, financial struggles, and people falling through the cracks leads to worse outcomes and increased costs. I chose healthcare to help people and want to help at scale, my mission and passion, not just one person at a time. Cancer can be a lonely journey, but it does not have to be. I look forward to building a community that educates and supports each other through difficult times.

Overview of signs & symptoms- Lung Cancer

Posted on by Zain Syed

The ABCs of Lung Cancer: Overview of signs & Symptoms

The symptoms of lunch cancer closely mimic other common illnesses such as a cold. It is very important to get screened early, especially if you have risk factors. The most common cause of lung cancer is smoking. Other common causes can include exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos, family history, other lung diseases, and a history of infections such as tuberculosis.

Symptoms of lung cancer include

  • Persistent cough
  • Trouble breathing
  • Chest pain
  • Wheezing
  • Coughing up blood.
  • Feeling very tired all the time.
  • Weight loss with no known cause.

 

When should you get screened

  • 50 years of age or older
  • Smoking 20 or more pack years

 

What is a pack year?

Take the number of packs smoked a day multiplied by the number of years smoked.

Example: 2 packs a day x 20 years = 40 pack years

 

Why is screening important?

Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer but the number one cause of cancer-related deaths. The 5-year survival rate decreases by almost half if cancer spreads further than the lungs.

 

5-Year Relative Survival 
Localized 61.2%
Regional 33.5%
Distant 7.0%
Unknown 9.9%
  • Localized cancer is limited to the primary site
  • Regional is cancer that has spread to the surrounding lymph nodes
  • Distant is cancer that has metastasized

 

The average 5-year survival rate for people with lung cancer is 22.9%. Most (55%) of it is diagnosed once it has metastasized. Death rates have decreased due to earlier screening and better treatment options.

Early screening is very important. If you or a loved one falls within the risk factors, reach out to your doctor and discuss being screened for lung cancer.

 

Sarcoma

Posted on by Zain Syed

What is Sarcoma?

Sarcoma is cancer that can develop in many body parts, including bone, muscle, fat, and connective tissue. There are two main types of Sarcoma, Bone and Soft tissue Sarcomas.

Soft tissue sarcomas can develop in soft tissues like fat, muscle, nerves, fibrous tissues, blood vessels, or deep skin tissues. They can be found in any part of the body.

Most of them start in the arms or legs. They can also be found in the trunk, head and neck area, internal organs, and the area in the back of the abdominal (belly) cavity (known as the retroperitoneum).  Sarcomas that most often start in the bones are osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma.

There are more than 50 types of soft sarcomas, and some are quite rare. 

Diagnosis

If your doctor suspects you have sarcoma, they will do a diagnostic imagining. This includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scan, positron emission tomography (PET) scan, X-ray, and ultrasound.

A CT scan gives the doctor a detailed 3D view of the scanned area.

If they find that there might be cancer, they may do a positron emission tomography (PET) scan that can detect cancer that the CT scan could not by using radioactive sugar. Cancer cells will use sugar much faster than our normal body cells.

If the PET scan confirms what the scans show, the final step to confirming you have cancer is taking some tissue from the cancerous areas to test. This is called a biopsy.

Once they have all the information, they will determine your cancer stage. The stage of cancer will help your doctor decide how to treat you. Staging is done on a numerical scale of 1-4. The higher the number, the more it has grown.

Risk Factors

  • Family history
  • BRCA2 gene mutation
  • Li-Fraumeni syndrome
  • Carney-Stratakis syndrome
  • Hereditary retinoblastoma
  • Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and Gardner’s syndrome
  • Neurofibromatoses

Treatment

The general rule of thumb with cancers in your tissue (solid tumor cancers) is if they can remove that tissue, they will do that. There are some reasons they would not be able to remove the tissue. If the tissue is too large, they may need to shrink it by using radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both. If cancer has spread to other parts of the body, then surgery is not always an option either.

Follow-Up

After completing your therapy, you will follow up with your doctor every 3-6 months for the first 2-3 years. They may repeat your scans and blood work to ensure that the cancer is not returning or growing.

Your doctor might want to see you sooner if they think it is medically necessary.

Things to think about:

  • Always get a second opinion. Healthcare professionals are humans and can see things differently.
  • A biopsy is a gold standard for diagnosing solid tumor cancers. You should not just start therapy without having one.
  • If you are feeling ill, having nausea, or anything out of the ordinary during your treatment, let your treatment team know! They might be able to help you. Remember, they are trying to help you, not make you miserable.
  • The best way to fight cancer is to catch it early. So, see your doctor yearly for a physical and screen early, especially if you have risk factors. The slight inconvenience is worth it!

 

Renal Cell Cancer

Posted on by Zain Syed

What is Renal Cell Cancer?

Renal cell cancer is when you have cells in your kidneys are growing improperly. Renal cell cancer also called renal cell adenocarcinoma or kidney cancer, is a disease where the cancer cells are found in the lining of the tubules( tiny tubes) in the kidney.

Kidney cancer symptoms:

  •         Blood in the urine is the most common kidney cancer symptom.
  •         A lump or mass on the side or lower back
  •         Unexplained fever for a few weeks
  •         Unintentional weight loss
  •         Lingering dull ache or pain in the side, abdomen, or lower back
  •         Feeling fatigued or in poor health
  •         Swelling of ankles and legs, These symptoms do not always mean you have kidney cancer. 

However, discussing any symptoms with your doctor is essential since they may signal other health problems.

Diagnosis

If your doctor suspects you have kidney cancer, they will do a diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan gives the Doctor a detailed 3D scan.

If they find that there might be cancer, they may do a positron emission tomography (PET) scan that can detect cancer that the CT scan could not by using radioactive sugar. Cancer cells will use sugar much faster than our normal body cells.

If the PET scan confirms what the CT scan shows, then the final step to confirming you have cancer is taking some tissue from the cancerous areas to test. This is called a biopsy.

Once they have all the information, they will determine your cancer stage. The stage of cancer will help your doctor decide how to treat you. Staging is done on a numerical scale of 1-4. The higher the number, the more it has grown.

Risk Factors

  • Smoking
  • Obesity
  • High blood pressure
  • Family history

Treatment

The general rule of thumb with cancers in your tissue (solid tumor cancers) is if they can remove that tissue, they will do that. There are some reasons they would not be able to remove the tissue. If the tissue is too large, they may need to shrink it by using radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both. If cancer has spread to other parts of the body, surgery is not always an option.

Follow-Up

After completing your therapy, you will follow up with your doctor every 3-6 months for the first 2-3 years. They may repeat your scans and blood work to ensure that the cancer is not returning or growing.

Your doctor might want to see you sooner if they think it is medically necessary.

Things to think about:

  • Always get a second opinion. Healthcare professionals are humans and can see things differently.
  • A biopsy is a gold standard for diagnosing solid tumor cancers. You should not just start therapy without having one.
  • If you are feeling ill, having nausea, or anything out of the ordinary during your treatment, let your treatment team know! They might be able to help you. Remember, they are trying to help you, not make you miserable.
  • The best way to fight cancer is to catch it early. So, see your doctor yearly for a physical and screen early, especially if you have risk factors. The slight inconvenience is worth it!

 

Pancreatic cancer screening and symptoms

Posted on by Zain Syed

How to know if you have Pancreatic Cancer?

The pancreas is the organ in your body responsible for many things. One is releasing special enzymes that help break down your food. Most people know the pancreas as the organ that helps regulate the body’s sugars with insulin and glucagon.

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer include:

  • Weight loss
  • Pancreatitis
  • Newly diagnosed diabetes
  • Uncontrolled diabetes
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Heartburn
  • Newly diagnosed blood clots
  • Yellowing of eyes and skin (jaundice)

When should you get screened?

Risk factors of pancreatic cancer include:

  • Smoking
  • Heavy alcohol use
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Lack of exercise
  • Chronic pancreatitis
  • Family history of pancreatic cancer
  • Genetics
  • Family history of pancreatic cancer

Why is screening important?

Localized cancer is limited to the primary site.

Regional is cancer that has spread to the surrounding lymph nodes

Distant is cancer that has metastasized

The 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 11.5%. Most (52%) of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed once it has metastasized. The 5-year survival rate of localized cancer is 43.9%.

 

As you can see early screening is very important. If you or a loved one falls within the risk factors or is experiencing any symptoms reach out to your doctor and discuss being screened for pancreatic cancer.

 

Pancreatic Cancer

Posted on by Zain Syed

What is Pancreatic Cancer?

Pancreatic cancer occurs when the cells within the pancreas grow out of control.  Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Pancreatic cancers are hard to diagnose early since the signs and symptoms aren’t obvious, resulting in an advanced-stage diagnosis when treatment options are limited.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with men having a slightly higher risk than women. 

Diagnosis:

If your doctor suspects pancreatic cancer, they may order a blood test that looks at a protein called CA 19-9. This is what is called a “tumor marker

Imaging:

If your Ca-19-9 is elevated, they may get a diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan gives the doctor a detailed 3D scan.

Other scans used include a PET scan and an MRCP.

A positron emission tomography (PET) scan can detect cancer that the CT scan could not by using radioactive sugar. Cancer cells will use sugar much faster than our normal body cells.

A magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is a scan that will specifically show a picture of the pancreas and the surrounding areas.

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is when they take a long flexible tube with a camera on its end through, usually your mouth, to take pictures of the pancreas and the surrounding area.

If the other scans confirm what the CT scan shows, then the final step to confirming you have cancer is taking some tissue from the cancerous areas to test. This is called a biopsy.

Once they have all the information, they will determine your cancer stage. The cancer stage will help your doctor decide how to treat you. Staging is done on a numerical scale of 1-4. The higher the number, the more it has grown.

Treatment:

The general rule of thumb with cancers in your tissue (solid tumor cancers) is if they can remove that tissue, they will do that. There are some reasons they would not be able to remove the tissue. If the tissue is too large, they may need to shrink it by using radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both. Surgery is not always an option if cancer has spread past the pancreas.

The backbone of pancreatic cancer chemotherapy is gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Your doctor may also look into clinical trials as a course of treatment.

Radiation therapy may also be used before, during, or after surgery.

Risk Factors

  • Smoking
  • Heavy alcohol use
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Lack of exercise
  • Chronic pancreatitis
  • Family history of pancreatic cancer
  • Genetics

Follow-up:

After completing your therapy, you will follow up with your doctor every 3-6 months for the first 2-3 years. They may repeat your scans and blood work to ensure that the cancer is not returning or growing.

Your doctor might want to see you sooner if they think it is medically necessary.

Things to think about:

  • Always get a second opinion. Healthcare professionals are humans and can see things differently.
  • A biopsy is a gold standard for diagnosing solid tumor cancers. You should not just start therapy without having one.
  • If you are feeling ill, having nausea, or anything out of the ordinary during your treatment, let your treatment team know! They might be able to help you. Remember, they are trying to help you, not make you miserable.
  • The best way to fight cancer is to catch it early. So, see your doctor yearly for a physical and screen early, especially if you have risk factors. The slight inconvenience is worth it!

 

Interested in learning more about Pancreatic screening and symptoms? Check out our next article on this topic.

Non-Small Cell Cancer (NSCLC)

Posted on by Zain Syed

Approximately  85% of lung cancer cases are considered NSCLC, which arises from the lung’s epithelial cells, a type of cell that lines the organ surface. Several types of non-small cell lung (NSCL) include adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Non-small-cell lung cancer is when the cells in your lungs grow out of control

Diagnosis:

If your doctor suspects you have lung cancer, they might consider doing a diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan gives the Doctor a detailed 3D scan.

If they find that there might be cancer, they may do a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. A PET scan can detect cancer that a CT scan could not by using radioactive sugar. Cancer cells will use up the sugar much faster than our normal body cells.

If the PET scan confirms what the CT scan shows, then the final step to confirming you have cancer is taking some tissue from the cancerous areas to test. This is called a biopsy.

Once they have all the information, they will determine what stage your cancer is. The stage of cancer will help your doctor decide how to treat you. Staging is done on a numerical scale of 1-4. The higher the number, the more it has grown.

Treatments: 

NSCLC is slower growing compared to small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

The general rule of thumb with cancers in your tissue (solid tumor cancers) is if they can remove that tissue they will do that. There are some reasons why they would not be able to remove the tissue. If the tissue is too large they may need to shrink it either by using radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both. If the cancer has spread past the lungs surgery is not always an option either.

The type of chemotherapy that is used is based on how your cells looked like under the microscope. Some common medications that are used are cisplatin, carboplatin, pemetrexed, etoposide, paclitaxel, gemcitabine, and docetaxel. Cisplatin and or carboplatin are used in combination with the others mentioned.

After your treatment, you may go through what is called consolidation therapy. Which is used to kill any remaining cancer cells that might have been left behind. The agent commonly used for this is called durvalumab.

In summary, surgery is always the first option. If surgery cannot be done they may try to shrink the tumor or just treat you with radiation or chemoradiation. Once that is done you might go through what is called consolidation therapy which is used to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Risk Factors:

Smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke, exposure to asbestos, family history, other lung diseases, and a history of infections such as tuberculosis.

Follow-up:

After you have completed your therapy you will be following up with your doctor every 3-6 months for the first 2-3 years. They may repeat your scans and blood work to ensure that the cancer is not returning or growing.

Your doctor might want to see you sooner if they think it is medically necessary.

Things to think about:

  • Always get a second opinion. Healthcare professionals are humans and can see things differently.
  • A biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosing solid tumor cancers. You should not just start therapy without having one.
  • If you are feeling ill, having nausea, or anything out of the ordinary during your treatment let your treatment team know! They might be able to help you. Remember they are trying to help you not make you miserable.
  • The best way to fight cancer is to catch it early. So, see your doctor yearly for a physical and screen early especially if you have risk factors. The slight inconvenience is worth it!

Learn more about Lung Cancer Symptoms and signs in our next article.

Small Cell Lung Cancer ( SCLC)

Posted on by Zain Syed

Lung cancer forms in the lung tissues, most often in the cells that line air passages. These cells grow and multiply uncontrollably, usually due to exposure to toxins such as tobacco, smoke, asbestos, and radiation. 

Diagnosis:

If your doctor suspects you have lung cancer, they will do a diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan gives the Doctor a detailed 3D scan.

If they find that there might be cancer, they may do a positron emission tomography (PET) scan that can detect cancer that the CT scan could not by using radioactive sugar. Cancer cells will use up the sugar much faster than our normal body cells.

If the PET scan confirms what the CT scan shows, then the final step to confirming you have cancer is taking some tissue from the cancerous areas to test. This is called a biopsy.

Once they have all the information, they will determine your cancer stage. The stage of cancer will help your doctor decide how to treat you. Staging is done on a numerical scale of 1-4. The higher the number, the more it has grown.

Treatment:

Faster growing and treated slightly differently than non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). You will still do the same scans, but with SCLC, they may also get a scan of your brain because SCLC is fast-growing cancer and can spread to the brain.

For early-stage SCLC, chemoradiation is used just like NSCLC. The preferred agents are carboplatin, etoposide, atezolizumab, and durvalumab. Generally, your therapy will have carboplatin and etoposide with either atezolizumab or durvalumab.

Risk Factors:

The most common cause of lung cancer is smoking. Other common causes can include exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos, family history, other lung diseases, and a history of infections such as tuberculosis.

Follow-up:

After completing your therapy, you will follow up with your doctor every 3-6 months for the first 2-3 years. They may repeat your scans and blood work to ensure that the cancer is not returning or growing.

Your doctor might want to see you sooner if they think it is medically necessary.

Things to think about:

  • Always get a second opinion. Healthcare professionals are humans and can see things differently.
  • A biopsy is a gold standard for diagnosing solid tumor cancers. You should not just start therapy without having one.
  • If you are feeling ill, having nausea, or anything out of the ordinary during your treatment, let your treatment team know! They might be able to help you. Remember, they are trying to help you, not make you miserable.
  • The best way to fight cancer is to catch it early. So, see your doctor yearly for a physical and screen early, especially if you have risk factors. The slight inconvenience is worth it!

 

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