Tag: cancersucks

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!

 

The future of early detection- Liquid biopsy

Posted on by Vino Cherian

Cancer is a frightening disease that impacts many people worldwide, a molecular disorder characterized by the corruption of genetic information at the cellular level, with consequences resulting in changes to critical proteins and molecular circuits. While many treatment options are available, early detection is key to successful treatment; liquid biopsies are a new way to detect cancer.

Let us explore liquid biopsy, how it works, and the benefits of using this approach to detect cancer

A liquid biopsy is a new, non-invasive way to detect and screen for cancer, predict a person’s risk of developing cancer, and guide treatment decisions.

Types of liquid biopsies:

There are several types of liquid biopsies currently available or under development. The most common type uses blood or other body fluids to look for DNA changes that may be associated with cancer. Liquid biopsies consist of isolating tumor-derived entities like circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, and tumor extracellular vesicles present in the body fluids of patients with cancer, followed by an analysis of genomic and proteomic data contained within them.

Other liquid biopsies look for proteins or molecules released by cancer cells into the bloodstream. It involves using a simple blood test to look for cancerous cells or DNA. This method is less invasive than traditional biopsies and can screen for multiple types of cancer at once. It could also monitor cancer patients for recurrent cancer or assess their effectiveness.

Advantages of Liquid biopsy over traditional biopsy:

There is a significant advantage of liquid biopsy over traditional tissue biopsy. Liquid biopsies are minimally invasive, have a shorter turnaround time, lower sample isolation costs, provide real-time drug response monitoring, and reveal spatial and temporal tumor heterogeneities.

As the specificity of the technology continues to progress, cancer screening and prevention will improve and save countless lives by finding cancer early so that routine surgery may only be for a definitive cure.

While far less expensive and accessible than traditional biopsy methods, it is a promising option for patients worldwide. With continued research and development, a liquid biopsy may soon become the gold standard for cancer screening, holding great promise for the future of cancer detection and treatment.

Ampullary Cancer

Posted on by Vino Cherian

Ampullary cancer is a rare type that develops in the ampulla, a small sac-like structure where the bile duct and pancreatic duct enter the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). Ampullary cancer often has symptoms similar to pancreatic cancer that are sometimes mistaken for the disease. The ampulla of Vater secretes digestive enzymes into the duodenum and regulates bile flow from the liver and gallbladder. This cancer is sometimes referred to as periampullary cancer because it can also develop in nearby tissues, such as the pancreas or bile duct.

Most ampullary cancers are adenocarcinomas, which begin in cells lining the inside of the ampulla and producing mucus. These cancers are usually slow-growing and do not spread (metastasize) to other body parts. However, ampullary cancer can be challenging to treat because it is often not caught in its early stages. By the time it is diagnosed, cancer may have spread beyond the ampulla and into nearby tissues.

What causes Ampullary Cancer

The cause of ampullary cancer is unknown but speculated to occur when normal cells in the ampulla start to grow out of control. Symptoms of ampullary cancer include pain in the abdomen, weight loss, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), and diarrhea or constipation.

Several risk factors for developing ampullary cancer include chronic pancreatitis, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), and specific inherited genetic syndromes such as Lynch syndrome. Smoking is also a risk factor. People with these conditions should discuss ways to reduce risk with their doctor.

How is Ampullary Cancer Diagnosed?

Ampullary cancer is diagnosed through a combination of medical imaging tests, such as CT, MRI, and endoscopic procedures, such as upper endoscopy. A biopsy, where a small tissue sample is used for examination under a microscope, is often needed to confirm the diagnosis.

What are the available treatments?

Treatment for ampullary cancer may include surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. The treatment type depends on the cancer stage (how far it has spread) and the person’s overall health. Surgery is the most common treatment for ampullary cancer. In some cases, only part of the ampulla needs to be removed. However, a more extensive operation, such as pancreaticoduodenectomy (also called a Whipple procedure), may be necessary if cancer has spread beyond the ampulla.

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are used to treat ampullary cancer. These treatments are given before or after surgery, depending on the cancer stage. Clinical trials testing new therapies for ampullary cancer are always ongoing. People with this condition should speak with their doctor about all treatment options, including clinical trials.

Ampullary cancer is a rare but serious condition. However, treatment has improved recently, and with early diagnosis and proper treatment, patients with ampullary cancer can often lead long and healthy lives.

Cancer Survivorship – Life After treatment

Posted on by Pinaki Saha

Cancer survivorship means different things to different people. For some, it may be a time of reflection and growth. Others may feel on a roller coaster of emotions, from joy to sadness. No matter your experience, there are ways to cope with the challenges of cancer survivorship. 

After completing treatment  

One of the first things you may notice is that you no longer have the same level of support from your medical team, which can be a difficult adjustment, but it is essential to remember that you are now in charge of your health. You may need to take on new responsibilities, such as managing your medications or monitoring your health. But this is also a time when you can start to take charge of your own life and make choices that are best for you.

Regardless of your experience with cancer survivorship, remember that you are not alone. What you have been through makes you stronger and more resilient. Cancer survivorship can also be a time of growth and healing. With the right support, you can overcome challenges, emerge even stronger than before, and live a whole and happy life.

Here are some tips to help you make the best of it

  • Focus on the future. It’s essential to learn from your experience with cancer, but it’s not healthy to dwell on it. Instead, focus on the present and the future.
  • Stay positive. A positive outlook will help you cope with the challenges that come with life after cancer.
  • Find a support network. Many people have been through what you’re going through. Find a support group or talk to a counselor who can help you navigate this time. Please visit cancergo.org to learn more about the support network.
  • Live your life. Don’t let cancer define you. You are more than your diagnosis. Live your life to the fullest and enjoy every moment.

 

Life after cancer can be a fantastic journey. You must remember that it will take time, patience, and resilience for your body/mind; there will always be challenges and many sources of strength along the way! Remember, live a happy life and be the best version of yourself!

Cancer Survivors: Ways to Help Others

Posted on by Vino Cherian

If you are a cancer survivor, you may wonder how you can help cancer patients who are still undergoing treatment. A common question among survivors is, “How do I give back?” There are many ways that you can offer support, both practical and emotional.

Few ideas to give back as a survivor:

Offer: One of the best ways to help cancer patients is by offering your time and energy, whether grocery shopping or taking care of kids; giving them a break from having too many responsibilities can do wonders for someone who has just begun or is going through treatment!

Listen: Cancer patients need someone to listen to them without judgment or advice. Just being there for them can be a tremendous support.

Share your story: If you feel comfortable doing so, sharing your own experience with cancer can be very helpful for cancer patients. It can show them that there is hope and that they are not alone.

Bring food: Cancer patients often have particular dietary needs, so bringing them homemade or healthy meals can significantly help.

Help with financial planning: Cancer treatment can be costly, so offering to help cancer patients budget and plan for their expenses can be a tremendous support.

Be there: Sometimes the best thing you can do is be present for cancer patients. Let them know that you care and are available to help in any way you can. Cancer patients often feel isolated and alone, so your support can make a difference.

Others way of giving back a survivor:

There are many ways to give back as a cancer survivor. Survivors can also volunteer their time, donate money, or raise cancer research and treatment awareness. You can find the best way for you and one that makes you feel good. Just know that your experience and knowledge are invaluable and can help cancer patients. Thank you for being an inspiration and a brave warrior!

What have been some of your favorite ways to give back?

Why a second opinion after a cancer diagnosis matters

Posted on by Vino Cherian

Cancer care is an ever-evolving field where new treatments are continuously developed. So, it is always worth getting a second opinion when a person is diagnosed with cancer. Furthermore, research evidence indicates that most early-stage cancer patients are satisfied with the opinion of their first oncologist.

So, what is a second opinion?

A second opinion provides a means to obtain additional input to reassure the patient about the recommended treatment options, feel assured that the initial oncologists correctly diagnosed the patient, and if the most effective treatment plan has been suggested. It can also give patients a chance to explore different treatment options to get more information about the risks and benefits of each option. Second opinions are especially relevant to cases of metastatic cancer.

Furthermore, in some cases, a second opinion may result in a completely different diagnosis, which can majorly impact treatment decisions. Seeking out a second opinion could make all the difference.

A few reasons why a Second Opinion is valuable

1. The Second opinion provides Peace of mind

After a cancer diagnosis, a second opinion can relieve some of the anxiety. When patients have doubts, they should get a second opinion to empower themselves with information and support that helps them make the right decisions and chooses the treatment that provides the best possible outcome.

2. The second opinion provides Different options

The possibility of receiving high-quality care wherever the patient seeks treatment might be there. However, the patient will learn different options they may have by getting a second opinion. Chemotherapy may be an option for patients who may only know about it after seeking a second opinion. Patients may also not realize they could also be a candidate for clinical trials and other therapies without a second opinion.

3. The involvement of a multidisciplinary approach opinion

The participation of a multidisciplinary team that discusses a patient’s treatment options ensures that the oncologist can use the collective knowledge of the entire team to provide a second opinion for each type of cancer.

4. The Support services that make a difference

Because cancer is complicated, having a team and services is vital to making a huge difference. Strong teams that can answer the patient’s questions following the second opinion are:

  • Oncology Nurse Practitioners
  • Oncology Pharmacists
  • Clinical trials recruitment specialists

Finally, cancer care can be expensive, and not everyone can afford to see multiple oncologists. By getting a second opinion, the patient can be sure of making the best possible decision about their health. Furthermore, if the patient cannot afford to see multiple doctors, getting a second opinion can help confirm that the first diagnosis was correct. 

Either way, Second opinions must become a normal part of cancer care.

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