Saturday 31 October 2015

Best Colon Cancer Treatment Options in India

Colon connecting as large intestine is the last & longest part of digestive system. The main function of Colon is to remove the water and other key nutrients from waste material and recycle it back into the body. Colon Cancer also contributing to the cancer of Large Intestine, is the abnormal uncontrolled growth of cells that have the ability to spread to the other parts of body. Colo-rectal Cancer is the progression of cancerous cells in colon or rectum or both. If left untreated, these Cancerous cells spread very rapidly to the nearby tissues and other parts of the body. The two most common sites of recurrence of Colorectal Cancer are Liver and Lungs.
  • The symptoms of colon cancer are given below.

  • 1. Bowel Obstruction & Abdominal distension
  • 2. Blood in Stool
  • 3. Change in character & frequency of stool
  • 4. Constipation
  • 5. Loss of appetite & weight loss
  • 6. Nausea or vomiting and Rectal bleeding or Anemia
  • Causes of colon cancer are given below.

  • 1. Genetic & Hereditary Factors – Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, Gardner Syndrome, Lynch Syndrome.
  • 2. Inflammation in bowel – Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s disease.
  • 3. Obesity, High intake of fat or red meat.
  • 4. Smoking and Alcohol consumption.
  • 5. Lack of physical exercise.
Surgery
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment and involves in block removal of diseased segment with adequate margins, surrounding tissue and lymph nodes. The names given to such resections are right hemicolectomy, transverse colectomy, left hemicolectomy, sigmoid colectomy, and subtotal colectomy.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy beams or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells. There are two types of radiation therapy. External radiation therapy uses linear accelerators outside the body to send radiation toward the cancer. Internal radiation therapy (Brachytherapy) uses a radioactive substance sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters that are placed directly into or near the cancer. The way the radiation therapy is given depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping the cells from dividing. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy). When chemotherapy is placed directly in the cerebrospinal fluid, an organ, or a body cavity such as the abdomen, the drugs mainly affect cancer cells in those areas (regional chemotherapy). The way the chemotherapy is given depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.
Other Types of Treatment
Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that uses drugs or other substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells without harming normal cells. Monoclonal antibody therapy is a type of targeted therapy being studied in the treatment of rectal cancer.
Monoclonal antibody therapy uses antibodies made in the laboratory from a single type of immune system cell. These antibodies can identify substances on cancer cells or normal substances that may help cancer cells grow. The antibodies attach to the substances and kill the cancer cells, block their growth, or keep them from spreading. Monoclonal antibodies are given by infusion. They may be used alone or to carry drugs, toxins, or radioactive material directly to cancer cells.

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Friday 30 October 2015

Liver Cancer Treatment India | liver cancer hospital in India

What is liver cancer ?
Liver cancer is the uncontrolled growth and spread of unhealthy cells in the liver. Cancer that starts in the liver is primary liver cancer. Cancer that spreads to the liver from another organ (such as bowel or breast) is known as secondary or metastatic liver cancer. 
What is the difference between liver tumor and liver cancer ?
Any mass or nodule in the liver is known as a liver tumor. Liver tumors can be non-cancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). The most common type of cancer that originates in the liver is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
.
What are the causes of primary liver cancer ?
There is no one cause of primary liver cancer. Several factors increase a person’s likelihood of developing liver cancer. Some risk factors for liver cancer include: Viral hepatitis - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are an important cause for the development of liver cancer. It is estimated that about 5-10 percent of people with HBV or HCV will develop liver cancer.
  • Cirrhosis is a progressive disorder that leads to scarring of the liver. Cirrhosis is the end result of all forms of long standing liver damage. Cirrhosis is caused by Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, alcohol abuse, fatty liver and certain genetic disorders.  5-10 percent of patients with cirrhosis will develop liver cancer. 
  • Toxins such as Arsenic - Drinking water (usually well water) contaminated with arsenic also increase risk for developing liver cancer. Obesity may increase the risk of liver cancer. 
  • Diabetes can increase the risk of liver cancer, especially in those who drink alcohol heavily or have chronic viral hepatitis B or C infection.
What are the symptoms of liver cancer ?
Liver cancer usually has no obvious symptoms, and people at risk should be followed regularly to detect cancer at an early stage. The following symptoms might be caused by liver cancer:
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Anorexia (persistent lack of appetite)
  • Early satiety (feeling very full after a small meal)
  • Persistent abdominal pain
  • Increasing abdominal girth (swelling of the "stomach" area) with or without breathing difficulty
  • Sudden jaundice (yellowness of the skin and eyes)
  • Sudden deterioration in the overall condition of a patient with cirrhosis
  • Liver enlargement or a mass that can be felt in the area of the liver

    How is liver cancer treated?
    Liver cancer can be treated in different ways. Treatment depends on the stage of your cancer and how healthy your liver is. The different treatments include:

    • Surgery – Liver cancer can sometimes be treated with surgery to remove the part of the liver with the cancer.
    • Liver transplant – A liver transplant is a type of surgery in which a doctor replaces a diseased liver with a healthy liver.
    • Ablation therapy – Ablation therapy is a procedure that can kill cancer cells in the liver. It does not involve surgery. Doctors can do ablation therapy in different ways. They can kill the cancer cells using heat, a laser, or by injecting a special alcohol or acid directly into the cancer.
    • Blocking the cancer’s blood supply – Doctors can do a procedure called “embolization” to block off the blood vessel that sends blood to the cancer. This keeps the cancer from growing.
    • Radiation therapy – Radiation kills cancer cells.
    • Chemotherapy – Chemotherapy is the term doctors use to describe a group of medicines that kill cancer cells.

    What happens after treatment?
    After treatment, you will be checked every so often to see if the cancer comes back. Regular follow up tests usually include exams, blood tests, and imaging tests. You should also watch for the symptoms listed above. Having those symptoms could mean the cancer has come back. Tell your doctor or nurse if you have any symptoms. If you had a liver transplant, you will need to take medicines called “anti-rejection medicines” for the rest of your life. These medicines help keep your body from reacting badly to your new live

Friday 23 October 2015

Best Treatment for Colon Cancer - Cancer Hospital in India

Colon Cancer Overview

The human colon, or large intestine, is a muscular, tube-shaped organ measuring about 4 feet long. It extends from the end of your small bowel to your anus. Typically the first or right portion of the colon which is called the ascending colon moves up from the lower right portion of the abdomen. The next portion, or transverse colon, moves across from the right to the left side of the upper abdomen. Next, the 3rd region or descending colon moves down the left side of your abdomen. Then an S shaped or sigmoid colon portion connects the rest of the colon to the rectum which ends at the anus. The colon has 3 main functions:
  • To digest and absorb nutrients from food
  • To concentrate fecal material by absorbing fluid (and dissolved salts, also called electrolytes) from it
  • To store and control evacuation of fecal material
The right side of your colon plays a major role in absorbing water and electrolytes, while the left side is responsible for storage and evacuation of stool.

Cancer is the transformation of normal cells. The transformed cells grow and multiply abnormally.
  • Left untreated, these cancers grow and eventually spread through the colon wall to involve the adjacent lymph nodes and organs. Ultimately, they spread to distant organs such as the liver, lungs, brain, and bones.
  • Cancers are dangerous because of their unbridled growth and potential for spread. They overwhelm healthy cells, tissues, and organs by taking their oxygen, nutrients, and space.
  • Most colon cancers are adenocarcinomas-tumors that develop from the glands lining the colon's inner wall.
  • These cancers, or malignant tumors, are sometimes referred to as colorectal cancer, reflecting the fact that the rectum, the end portion of the colon, can also be affected. Anatomic differences in the rectum as compared to the rest of the colon require that these areas be separately recognized.

    Colon Cancer Treatment in India

Surgery
If the cancer is small, localized in a polyp and in a very early stage, the doctor may be able to remove it completely during a colonoscopy. Larger polyps may be removed using endoscopic mucosal resection. If the pathologist determines that it’s likely that the cancer was completely removed, there may be no need for additional treatment. Polyps that can’t be removed during colonoscopy may be removed using laparoscopic surgery. 

Surgery for Invasive Colon Cancer
If the colon cancer has grown into or through the colon, the surgeon may recommend a partial colectomy to remove the part of colon that contains the cancer, along with a margin of normal tissue on either side of the cancer. Nearby lymph nodes are usually also removed and tested for cancer. The surgeon is often able to reconnect the healthy portions of colon or rectum. But when that’s not possible, for instance if the cancer is at the outlet of rectum, the patient may need a permanent or temporary colostomy. This involves creating an opening in the abdomen wall from a portion of the remaining bowel for the elimination of body waste into a special bag. Sometimes the colostomy is only temporary, allowing the colon or rectum time to heal after surgery. In some cases, however, the colostomy may be permanent.

Surgery for Advanced Cancer
If the cancer is very advanced or the overall health is very poor, the surgeon may recommend an operation to relieve a blockage of the colon or other conditions in order to improve symptoms. This surgery isn’t done to cure cancer, but instead to relieve signs and symptoms, such as bleeding and pain. In specific cases where the cancer has spread only to the liver and if the overall health is otherwise good, the doctor may recommend surgery to remove the cancerous lesion from liver. Chemotherapy may be used before or after this type of surgery.

Chemotherapy    
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy for colon cancer is usually given after surgery if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. In this way, chemotherapy may help reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.

Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses powerful energy sources, such as X-rays, to kill cancer cells that might remain after surgery, to shrink large tumors before an operation so that they can be removed more easily, or to relieve symptoms of colon cancer and rectal cancer. 

Targeted Therapy
Drugs that target specific defects that allow cancer cells to grow are available to people with advanced colon cancer. Targeted drugs can be given along with chemotherapy or alone. Targeted drugs are typically reserved for people with advanced colon cancer.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Understanding Glioblastoma - Advanced Brain Tumor Surgery in India


Ever heard of gliomas? These primary brain tumors arise within the brain, but we don't know the cell of origin.There are multiple grades of gliomas -- grade II, III and IV, with grade IV being the most malignant. 
Grade IV tumors are called glioblastoma. They are the most aggressive and are very infiltrative - they spread into other parts of the brain quickly. Glioblastomas don't metastasize outside of the brain.  Glioblastomas can occur in any lobe of the brain and even the brain stem and cerebellum, but more commonly occur in the frontal and temporal lobes. Below, I've answered some common questions I get about glioblastoma.
Are there any known causes or risks factors for glioblastoma?
 Glioblastoma are more common in males, persons older than 50, and people of Caucasian or Asian ethnicity.  There are a few very rare familial syndromes that are associated with brain tumors. One of the only known risk factors that we have for brain tumors is radiation exposure.
What are common symptoms of glioblastoma? 
 The symptoms for any brain tumor are related to the locations from where the brain tumor originates and the rate of tumor growth. Symptoms can vary widely. Some are silent and only found incidentally when a brain scan is done for another reason.  
The most common symptoms include headaches, nausea, vomiting and seizures. Tumors frequently cause subtle personality changes and memory loss or, again, depending on location, muscle weakness and disturbances in speech and language.  

 How is a glioblastoma diagnosed? 
 Most patients with glioblastoma undergo a CT scan, followed by MRI. The actual pathological diagnosis has to be made at the time of surgery (tissue is removed and examined by a neuropathologist). 

What are the treatment options for a glioblastoma? And why, typically, is it hard to treat? 
 The standard treatment for glioblastomas is maximal safe resection (surgery), followed by concurrent radiation and an oral chemotherapy called temolozomide over a 6-week period. Upon completion of radiation, 6-12 cycles of adjuvant temolozomide are given to the patient five days in a row every four weeks. 

Glioblastomas are not surgically curable, but there is good evidence that the more tumor that can be removed, the better the prognosis. The radiation and chemotherapy are designed to target the infiltrative component of the glioblastoma and delay tumor progression. 

What advice would you give someone who has just been diagnosed with a glioblastoma?

One of the most important things that you can do is to seek care or even a second opinion by people that spend all of their time treating this disease. Glioblastoma is a very complicated disease. There are a lot of nuances to both the diagnosis and the treatment, and you want an expert to help you work through the treatment process. 

Also look for a physician who will give you the undivided time and attention you deserve. Your doctor shouldn't be rushing through your visit. I talk to patients about their diagnosis, explain to them all the aspects of the treatment as well as the impact of the tumor on their quality of life. I also spend as much time answering questions as the patient requires. 

Most Advanced  & Latest: Brain Cancer Tumor Treatment in India

For Brain tumor treatments; our hospitals have the multidisciplinary team of Neurologists, Neuro-oncologists, surgical oncologists (Head & Neck unit), Medical oncologists, Radiation Oncologists, Onco-pathologists and neuropsychologists and other Specialists.

There are three main types of treatment approaches for brain tumor:
  • Surgery
  • Chemotherapy
  • Radiotherapy (radiation therapy)
Multi – Disciplinary treatment approaches performed at our world class Hospitals Brain Cancer Tumor Treatment in India
  • Brain Suite– latest advancement in image-guided surgery, providing real-time views of the tumor site with intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (IMRI)
  • Trans-Nasal Endoscopic – Advanced surgical treatment options for the management of brain tumors and lesion
  • Stereotactic Radiosurgery- Advanced imaging technologies to destroy the tumor and achieve permanent local control.
  • Tumor Embolization using Neuro Interventional Radiology.
  • Endoscopic Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery.


Latest Treatments – Leukemia Treatment in India at Best Cancer Hospital


Leukemia is cancer of the blood cells. Most blood cells form in the bone marrow. In leukemia, cancerous blood cells form and crowd out the healthy blood cells in the bone marrow. The type of leukemia depends on the type of blood cell that has become cancerous. For example, acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a cancer of the lymphoblasts (white blood cells that fight infection). White blood cells are the most common type of blood cell to become cancer. But red blood cells (cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body) and platelets (cells that clot the blood) may also become cancer.

Leukemia occurs most often in adults older than 55 years, and it is the most common cancer in children younger than 15 years.

Leukemia is either acute or chronic. Acute leukemia is a fast-growing cancer that usually gets worse quickly. Chronic leukemia is a slower-growing cancer that gets worse slowly over time. The treatment and prognosis for leukemia depend on the type of blood cell affected and whether the leukemia is acute or chronic. Chemotherapy is often used to treat leukemia.

Symptoms
The symptoms of leukemia depend on the severity of the cancer. However, the general symptoms are fevers & night sweats, bone pain, unusually frequent infections, bleeding from the rectum or gums, bruising of the skin, swelling in the belly, radiating pain in left shoulder, pain in the left of the belly and weight loss with decreased appetite.
Risk Factors
The risk factors of the leukemia will be increased with the usage of tobacco, smoking, more radiation, exposing to certain chemicals and sometimes also past chemotherapy treatment taken for another cancer.
Types 1. Acute Leukemia
The immature blood cells are rapidly increased to cause the acute leukemia. Such excess cells make the production of the healthy blood cells to be impossible by the bone marrow. Since the malignant cells are rapidly progressing and accumulated, immediate treatment should be given. Otherwise, there will be chances of spreading to the other organs of the body, through splitting over into the bloodstream. It is the most common type of leukemia found in the children.
2. Chronic Leukemia
The blood cells, which are relatively mature, but grown abnormally and become excessive, cause the chronic leukemia. It takes a long time like months and years to grow. The chronic forms are to be monitored before attempting to go for the treatment so that the maximum effectiveness of the therapy can be ensured. It generally occurs in older people, however, technically it is possible to attack anyone of any age. There are no symptoms experienced in the beginning. When it gets severe, infections or swollen lymph nodes are experienced.
Diagnosis
There are multiple diagnostic methods to identify the leukemia.
1. Physical Exam
The swollen lymph nodes, liver and spleen are physically checked by the doctor.
2. Spinal Tap
Cerebrospinal fluid is removed in small amounts by the doctor. This is the fluid that fills the spaces found in and around the spinal cord and brain. A thin and long needle is used to remove this fluid taken from the lower spine. The fluid is then
examined in the lab to find the other signs of the problem.
3. Blood tests
Blood tests are conducted in the lab to check the number of red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells from the sample blood. Since the white blood cells are in high level and eventually, the count of hemoglobin and platelets will be decreased in the red blood cells.
Biopsy: In this process, a small tissue with the cancer is removed from the body for the
check up. This process ensures the infected leukemia. Local anesthesia is given to the organ in order to numb that area.
Bone Marrow Biopsy: A needle, which is thick and hollow, is used to remove the bone marrow and bone in small pieces.
Bone Marrow Aspiration: a very thick and hollow needle is used to remove the same small pieces of bone or bone marrow.
4. Chest X-ray
Chest X-ray helps to view the lymph nodes that are swollen along with the other signs of related disease in the chest.
5. Cytogenetics
In this diagnosis process, a sample of bone marrow, lymph nodes and blood are taken to look at its chromosomes of the cells. The variation and abnormalities in these chromosomes can show the type of the leukemia that patient has.

1.  Stem Cell Transplant
The stem cell transplant treats the leukemia, using high dose of radiation or drugs and sometimes both of them. The stem cells are to be taken from the donor, when there is a close math of the bone marrow of the donor and patient. It is necessary to take before, as the high dose kills the leukemia cells as well as the normal blood cells. So, right after the chemotherapy, the stem cells collected from the donor will be put back into the blood. The new blood cells are produced by the stem cells within a few weeks of time.
2. Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy targets only the cancer causing cells through the usage of the drugs, still not damaging the healthy cells. Cancer growth inhibitors are one kind of this therapy.
3.     Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the usage of the drugs to destroy the cancer cells. These drugs can be given by the pills or injection to interfere, the cancer cells’ growth ability. However, they also tend to damage the healthy cells to some extent. And these damaged healthier cells can be recovered over a period of time. It may cause the side effects like vomiting, fatigue, hair loss, nausea, increased risk of infection and loss of appetite.
4.     Biological therapy
Biological therapy makes use of the built-in immune system to enable it to fight against the cancer or sometimes also implemented to control the side effects caused from the other cancer treatments. The body’s defenses are boosted up using the drugs or normal body substances to fight against the illness.
5.     Radiation therapy
High doses of radiation like X-rays are used to destroy the cancer cells in this treatment.