Cancer

Eggplant used as natural skin cancer treatment

cancer — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:12:50 +0000

Nature is amazing because it gives us everything we need and it does not want anything in exchange except maybe some peace which we constantly deny. Any way, people have always had diseases and they still tried to find the cure for certain illnesses long before the industrial production of medicines. They took everything from nature and nature helped them. Every tribe in the old days and every village had a person who knew how to use the different properties of medicinal plants and which one to use in every disease and that knowledge usually gave them an enormous power. It was because they had the power to save people’s lives and that was extremely important and sometimes these early versions of doctors were attributed supernatural powers.

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The idea is that we can turn to nature even today instead of just buying pills because natural remedies are far better for us by the lack of side-effects and by the fact that they do not contain chemicals that can affect our body. I thought cancer was impossible to be cured without surgery and chemotherapy and it never crossed my mind that there could be a natural medicine for this feared disease. Well, apparently there is. But not for all kinds of cancer - only for skin cancer. There are more plants that can be used for obtaining medicines from them or even mixed and used as poultice directly on the skin, in the affected area.

One of them is the eggplant that can be used as a natural skin cancer treatment. Because doctors and scientists noticed that people with skin lesions used a miraculous mixture of plants to heal the place, they wanted to know more about it and thus they found out that the basic ingredient for this natural medicine was eggplant. They analyzed the plant in labs and found out that eggplant contains a substance called BEC 5 that acts like a very effective cure for skin cancer. It identifies the cancer cells and attacks them, leaving the healthy parts of the tissue unharmed. Some of the skin cancer patients who embraced natural treatment for their disease made a mixture out of eggplant, water and vinegar and they put all the ingredients in the blender until they mixed and formed a paste.

Then they put the mixture on the affected spot and left it for two or three hours there. The effect can be seen in a matter of days and the cancer tissue just falls off the skin and gets a crust that heals in time, leaving no cancer cells behind. All this without surgery or anything. Some individuals saw the opportunity and extracted the active substance from the eggplant and used it to prepare some kind of cream or ointment for skin cancer.

Apart from the eggplant there are other plants, too, that are used as a natural treatment for skin cancer. They are the bloodroot and the Devil’s apple, an Australian plant that is similar somehow to the eggplant, belonging to the same family.

I think that if we look carefully around and take the time to see what nature has to offer, we would benefit a lot more and find more natural cures for different diseases.<

History Of Skin Cancer

cancer — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:08:09 +0000

Skin cancer is one of the most widely spread forms of cancer, but it is not as dangerous as other forms and it’s rarely lethal. In fact most of the times the cancer tissue once removed, the patient does not need any other type of treatment. However, it is important to keep on eye on these skin cancer formations and have them removed in time so that we can avoid further complications like the cancer spreading to other organs.

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Many people think that cancer is a recent disease, that it has appeared in the modern era because of the indortrial chemicals that are spread in the environment. But, in fact, the history of skin cancer goes way back in time, until around 2400 before Christ. At least the oldest documented proofs od skin cancer are that old. The samples examined under microscope and proved to be skin cancer belonged to some old Inca mummies that were discovered in Peru and studied in 1960. Scientists found melanoma tissue in the skin and also some metastases to the bones. Because the mummies were very well preserved and the skin was still intact, scientists could make observations and examinations and this is how they made the discovery. Oh, I forgot to mention that the mummies were carbon dated and found to be over 2000 years old.

If these were the first “patients” with skin cancer, the first doctor that operated on a metastatic skin cancer was the English John Hunter in 1787. He removed the affected tissue and preserved it, the samples getting later into the Hunterian Museum in England and they did such a good job that the experts couls examin it in 1968 and confirmed that the excised tumour was a skin cancer melanoma. But Hunter did not have a name for the ilness he operated on and he called it ” a cancerous fungous excrescence”.

The history of skin cancer crosses the English Channel and gets to France where the physician Rene Laennec described melanoma as being a disease of its own and a kind of skin cancer. He presented his report on this topic during a lecture at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris in 1804 and then published it in 1806.

An English GP, William Norris, came with a report of melanoma 14 years later and this is considered the first medical report on melanoma written in English. But Norris went a bit further with his studies and observations on this condition and he realized that apparently skin cancer has a familial predisposition, that is the risk of getting this disease is increased if your family members have it.

The next important step was the discovery made by Samuel Cooper in 1840 - he realized that skin cancer in advanced stages is untreatable and the future development of the disease is very much dependable on the stage in which melanoma is removed . I guess things have not changed very much since then and now we have more methods of removing the affected tissue and more medicine.

Skin Cancer Treatments

cancer — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:27:41 +0000

Skin cancer can appear everywhere on our skin, but the most frequent locations are on the organs that are exposed to direct sunlight for example on the face, hands and neck. Because there are many types of skin cancer, there are also many types of skin cancer treatment. So the oncologist will have to run a few tests to establish exactly what kind of skin cancer is affecting the patient and also to see the stage of the cancer in order to be able to choose the best treatment that will have the best result. The doctor will also consider the patient ’s tolerance to certain medicines or to certain therapeutic methods and they will explain the whole process and all the options in order to allow the patient to express option and opinion.

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Skin cancer is the most widely spread type of cancer in the whole world, so there are lots of skin patients every year. Usually they come to the doctor in relatively incipient stages because the signs and symptoms are rather obvious, as the skin is on the outside of the body. Especially the cancerigen moles that are located on the face, neck and hands are very visible and this leads to an early diagnosis, so to an increased chance of being cured. Normally the treatment of choice is surgery, as all these malignant lomes or nevi must be removed from the skin in some way, but even though surgery has multiple subtypes for removing the damaged tissue.

There’s the simple excision when the surgeon removes the affected tissue together with some healthy tissue around in order to avoid any bad cells behind. Then there’s laser therapy that uses a small laser beam for removing the damaged cells or tissue from the surface of the skin. Another procedure used in skin cancer treatment is Mohs micrographic surgery - it is a bit more special because the surgeon removes the affected tissue layer by layer, acting with extreme care and precision and usually examining the removed tissue under the microscope in order to make sure there are no cancer cells left.

Electrodessication and curettage is a bit different as it burns tha cancer cells and then removes them by using a shapr surgical object, usually a scalpel. To the opposite side there’s criosurgery that uses liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxyde to kell the cancer cells. Dermabrasion uses a kind of spinning device to remove the top skin layer where there are the cancer or pre-cancer cell formations.

Radiotherapy is used in almost all forms of cancer and it uses different types of radiation, normally X-rays with a very high energy with the purpose of killing the cancer or make the tumours shrink.

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill the cancer cells and it can be either regional (when it is injected in a certain organ and focuses only on the cancer cells found there) or systemic and in this case the medication is taken orally or intravenously and it spreads all over the body killing any cancer cells it may find on the way.

Except for these types of skin cancer treatment I have mentioned there are also some other new types that are more or less experimental like biologic therapy which is sometimes refered to as immunotherapy that uses the patient’s immune system to produce some substances that help it fight cancer .

Famous People With Skin Cancer

cancer — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:24:20 +0000

I was watching TV the other day and I saw dozens of shows and news about Michael Jackson’s commemoration and I got the chance to find out more about his life and health or let’s say lack of it. I simply don’t know how much of what I saw on TV is journalistic exaggeration in an attempt to bring audience , but something must certainly be true since it appeared on more channels and I also googled the information. The unusual piece of news I heard said that the pop star had suffered from skin cancer and had to undergo surgery from having some melanoma removed from his skin. I really don’t know if it’s true as everything about MJ seems to be a bit blurry, but apparently more than one source claims that.

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Any way, that was only a pretext for finding more information about famous people with skin cancer. To my surprise there are quite a few of them. This proves once again that famous people, too, can suffer and even die from diseases and no matter how much money you have, this can’t give you some more life.

If this case was questionable and not publicly admitted, the other famous people with skin cancer I found admitted it and fought it and were survivors, even if the cancer chose to come back a few times. This is the living proof that skin cancer is rarely deadly, but it does affect your general health state and can get worse if left untreated.

Some historians claim they found evidence in some official papers belonging to George Washington, the first American president, who said he had a growing cell formation on his nose that turned into skin cancer in the end. Then there’s former resident Ronald Reagan and his daughter Maureen who actually died of skin cancer wen she was 60. Another president - the same problem - George H. Bush, but also Bill Clinton and Dwight Eisenhower, too.

They had the cancer or pre-cancer formations removed from the face or nose ot wherever they were located, but they did not advertised that problem too much because it was considered a personal matter. Senator John McCain, who was also a candidate for president has survived three battles with skin cancer and fortunately he is still active.

But not only politicians are punished with skin cancer, but actors and musicians, too. For example Roger Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, Cybill Shepherd, Clint Eastwood, Melanie Griffith and Ewan McGregor had all underwent surgery to have some cancer and pre-cancer moles removed from their faces especially. They all say they have learnt a valuable lesson that life is more important than any nice looking tan and that you must always take precautions because nobody is cancer proof.

Bob Marley, the once reggae king is unfortunately a sad example because he died at a very young age - only 36 because he suffered from a combination of skin cancer and brain cancer and that proved too much for him. Most of these people have tried to take advantage of their public position and lead skin cancer awareness campaigns, speaking publicly about their experiences and trying to make people understand it’s very important to protect against the sun but also to have regulat doctor check-ups.

If you know some other names , please fell free to add to my list by posting a comment.

What Does Skin Cancer Look Like?

cancer — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:01:51 +0000

We all know the basics about skin cancer, about the fact that it’s not safe to stay in the sun for too long and that it’s better to wear a hat or some head cover in summer, that the skin can deteriorate and burn or even get skin cancer because of UV overexposure. But unfortunately we know all these only in theory because in reality we have no idea how to distinguish between a normal mole and a sign of skin cancer. That is why many internet users ask this question on the medical forums:” What does skin cancer look like?”. It looks like a legitimate question to ask because you must know the signs and the skin cancer appearance before starting worrying for any nevus or mole you might have and freak out until getting to the doctor.

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Any way, the most important thing you should know about how to make the difference between a non-malignant mole and skin cancer is the change of the skin. When you have skin cancer, no matter what kind and no matter what stage it is, you will notice a change in the texture, colour, size and even look of any part of your skin, including the freckles, moles, nevi and so on. Moles are innofensive as long as they do not grow or change colour. Moles usually appear in childhood and teenage years, so if you are an adult and notice a fresh mole on your body, go to a specialist consult immediately.

I think the ABCDE of skin cancer explains best when you should worry. First the A stands for asymmetry. If you divide the spot or mole or whatever cell formation you have on your skin in two and the two sides are asymmetrical, there’s a problem. Skin cancer usually has this distinctive mark. Then B is for borders - if they are irregular it can’t be good. C is for colour - no skin formation should change colour in time or have different shades of colour in the same location. D stands for diametre and the maximum tolerated diametre for a non-cancerigenic nevus or mole is 6 mm. Finally E is for evolution - it is better to examine your body at least once a month and even get some help to see the most remote spots on your body to look for some unusual signs, for some moles or nevi that started evolving, that is either growing or shrinking.

Any way, even if there are no apparent signs of cancer, if you feel that something is not right, it surely isn’t. So go to the doctor and better have a consult to tell you everything is fine instead of waiting and let things get worse.

If you still wonder ask yourself or others : What does skin cancer look like? then you should take a look of these photos of skin cancer and you will see the images of real cancer taken from real cases. You could not possibly imagine that except if you have a relative or friend suffering from this type of cancer. So after you watch these images you will have an idea of what to look for next time you look in the mirror for any eventual signs of skin cancer .

Causes of skin cancer

cancer — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:56:49 +0000

Skin is the largest organ of the human body and it protects us from the exterior factors that might affect us. Apart from the protective role, the skin is also used for many other purposes that are very important for the good functioning of the body like adjusting the temperature by sweat or the touch sense that offers us a lot of information about the environment. Any way because its surface is very large, the skin is likely to suffer multiple injuries and other diseases like skin cancer for example. It actually is one of the most frequent cancer type in the world and it affects lots of people every year but it is rarely deadly because it is easy to detect since the skin is on the exterior of our bodies so highly noticeable.

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There are more causes of skin cancer but the most frequent one is UV radiation from the sun. That means that if your skin is overexposed and unprotected to direct action of the sun, especially during the hot midday hours when the radiation transmition is maximum. The UV rays damage the DNA in the skin cells and make them grow in an uncontrolled way, degenarating into skin cancer. Even though staying too long in the sun, so getting overexposed to these UV radiations is the main cause for skin cancer, it is not the only one.

One of the other causes of skin cancer is genetic predisposition. If a person has first degree relatives who suffered from or are suffering from skin cancer or any other kind of cancer the possibility of getting this disease increase a lot. They usually get some nevi or moles are they are called which can appear all over the surface of the skin of a person’s body. If they are too large and get damaged or hurt they can cause skin cancer. That is why doctors strongly recommend their removal as the use to say “there’s no such thing as a harmless mole” - it can turn into melanoma any time.

Then there are the chronic burns or wounds that do not heal for a long time and these can turn into cancer in time. They are called Marjolin’s ulcers and can become squamous cell carcinoma, that is also a type of skin cancer. Even though it might seem unrelated HPV infection is also a cause for skin cancer to develop. It can appear in the areas of the body that are affected by this Human Papillomavirus like the anus, the genitals, fingers or even mouth in the case of those practicing oral sex. This infection is responsible for weakening the immune system, especially in the organs affected and it is known that cancer uses this weakness to get installed in the exact organ that is weaker.

I know that some of you do not want to hear this or even admit it is true, but smoking, too, is smoking. Statistics say that a very bog number of the patients diagnosed with skin cancer are smokers. In fact the percentage is a lot bigger than for non-smokers, so you’d better give up that nasty habit and this may save your life some day. Exposure to coal and arsenic compounds and even some deficiencies in minerals and vitamins are also considered risk factors that can lead to this disease and so is exposure to any kind of dangerous suctances.

Drugs used for lung cancer

cancer — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:09:10 +0000

Lung cancer is maybe the most widely spread type of cancer in the whole world. It affects both men and women and it is also among the most dangerous diseases, as the mortality rate is pretty high and this is the cancer that causes the most number of deaths. If in the past, I mean about twenty years ago or so men were more likely to have lung cancer, today the feminine patients have increased in number, too, the main cause being the fact that they started smoking, too.If normally the factor that triggered the cancer to appear is not known, in lung cancer more than 90% of the cases are caused by smoking. So this is the most serious risk factor.

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Because lungs are vital for people’s survival, if they are affected in some way like having a tumour inside affects the quality of life and the patient experiences short breath and difficulty breathing. If the tumour is big in size and it is removed, the surgeon is also forced to cut a part of the lung, a big part around the tumour, so it’s very difficult to treat this kind of cancer. Treatment includes surgery , chemotherapy, radiotherapy and laser therapy.

Chemotherapy is that kind of treatment that deals with the drugs used for lung cancer. It is a systemic treatment, that is it uses medication to try to kill the cancer cells all over the body, not only locally. That is why it is used in stages three and four of cancer. There is no miraculous potion or recipe to use for all patients , but each has their own medication, a drug coktail prescribed by the oncologist doctor depending on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed, the reaction of the tumour and of the whole body to medication and , of course, on the patient’s tolerance of certain drugs.

There are lots of different types of drugs used for lung cancer and if you are curious you can find really comprehensive lists available on the internet. Just search “drugs used for lung cancer and you will see more results. The names of some drugs may differ depending on the producing company, even if the active substance is the same.

Normally these drugs are used in combinations and after a long experience the doctors already know which are the best ones: EP Cisplatin with etoposide, Carboplatin with etoposide; CAV - cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and vincristine, CAV and etoposide. So if these were the best combinations, here are the most commonly used drugs: Ifosfamide, Mitomycin, Vinorelbine, Cisplatin,Gemcitabine, Paclitaxel, Topotecan, Etoposide, Doxorubicin and many others.

All these drugs have better or worse effects depending on the patient, but they are all produced with the hope that they will help people who are sick to get better. And even if there is a wide variety of such drugs already on the market, researchers still continue to try to find better and better formulas for drugs with more powerful effects, drugs that will hopefully cure cancer one day.

Now what is your opinion, which of these drugs is the best ?

Breast cancer stages

cancer — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:04:01 +0000

Most people know that all types of cancer are divided into stages and the bigger the number of the stage the worse the cancer is, so let’s see what exactly are the breast cancer stages and what they represent. First of all staging this disease is very important because depending on the stage of the cancer the doctor will know the exact evolution of the disease and will be able to prescribe the correct treatment and make the correct predictions. There is a big difference in treatment depending on stage - for example if the cancer is incipient and has been identified by performing a regular mammogram, the only treatment is lumpectomy, but as the cancer advances and the stage is more advanced the treatment becomes more aggressive and more serious. This staging is universal, that is it is the same all over the world and wherever you may go, the doctors there will know exactly the development of your disease if you tell them your stage.

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Some specialists begin this staging with Stage 0, which is not normally cancer at all, but only a non-invasive breast cancer, in fact an abnormal cell formation that will turn into cancer only if it is nor removed.

Breast cancer stages normally begin with Stage I, where we already have cancer cells that started to multiply and migrate to the neighbouring tissue. It’s an incipient tumour that can have a dimension of up to 2 centimetres. If the patient is lucky enough to have a mammogram or some special screening , the doctor will be able to identify it and recommend surgery.I have to mention that the tumour is only in one place and has not started to migrate to the lymph nodes yet, but you can find it only in the breast.

Stage II can take a longer time, so some oncologists divide it into two separate parts : stage II A and B. The A one descibes different scenario where the tumour may have between 2 and 5 cm but it is not extended to the nodes or there’s no tumour identified but the armpit lymph nodes are swollen and hurt or both (there is a small tumour that has spread to the nearby lymph nodes - in this case the tumour is less than 2 cm). Stage IIB is a kind of combination - the tumout is small and spread or is big (larger than 5 cm) and did not spread.

Stage III is the stage in which most breast cancers are detected because now the cancer leaves its initial location and starts spreading around. This causes some tissue disruptures and they hurt. The tumour also grows in size and it is now palpable. Normally this stage, too, is divided into a lot of substages, but I will leave them only to the specialists. First the cancer spreads to the lymph nodes and then, little by little, invades the other organs in the body. Here, in stage III it only gets to the lymph nodes and sometimes to the chest bone and muscle.

Stage IV is called metastatic cancer because there are now metastases to different parts of the body, sometimes really distant from the initial starting point. Breast cancer usually has mets to the liver, lungs, intestines or even bones.

Breast cancer symptoms in painting

cancer — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:53:47 +0000

I thought cancer is a recent disease and it appeared only because of all the noxes and cancerigenic substances there were released in the air and water after the industrial revolution, so close to present. But unfortunately things proved a lot different from what I used to think and proved me once again that we are learning something new every day. A bit of research or better said Goggle search informed me that breast cancer was documented a lot earlier, around 1600 BC in Ancient Egypt on a papyrus that described the main symptoms and appearance of this disease and also specified that it is not curable.

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It was only later, in the seventeenth century that doctors realized the connection between the lymphatic system and the spreading of breast cancer and they realized that by removing the breast completely and also the armpit lymph nodes, together with some extra tissue from the chest could lead to a longer life for the patient. So this disease was well known from the ancient times.Actually if you are a bit curious to study this topic you will find out that some really famous women who played an important part in history died of breast cancer, among them Empress Theodora who was married to Justinian, the Roman emperor, Anne of Austria - who was the Queen of France and married Louis XIII, George Washington’s mother and many others.

The really interesting thing is that sometimes some of the breast cancer symptoms appeared in painting, especially the painting belonging to the Rennaissance period. That can be explained by the fact that the painters of that period were inspired by real-life models and painted them exactly as they were in reality. Actually these things were not known back then but they were discovered a lot later, in the modern era, a few years ago, when a doctor that specialized in breast cancer admired one of Rembrandt’s paintings, The Portrait of Bathsheba, and noticed the signs and symptoms of breast cancer in painting.

There was obviously a change in the dimension of one breast when compared to the other and also an unusual mass on one of the breasts and even a slight change in the breast skin colour. Then a team of surgeons analyzed other paintings belonging to the same period and found breast lacerations, inverted nipples and other signs of breast cancer.

There was a guy called James S. Olson who actually became rather passionate about this subject and gathered all the information he could find that related breast cancer to some of these famous paintings and wrote a book called “Bathsheba’s breast - Women, Cancer and History. Here he documented the topic with lots of painting photos and also followed the path of breast cancer in history , writing about famous women who suffered from breast cancer, but never talked about it, as it was considered innappropriate at the time.

Here are some famous paintings of famous painters and if you are curious about this , try to find a good photo or reproduction and examine it carefully in order to find the eventual signs and breast cancer symptoms in painting: La Fornarina by Rafael Sanzio, The Three Graces by Peter Paul Rubens, Bathsheba with David’s Letter byRembrandt van Rijn. I bet you already knew these paintings, but you never noticed the symptoms there, right?

Can you survive breast cancer without chemo treatment?

cancer — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:50:32 +0000

Normally after a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer she must run some tests and then she will be prescribed the necessary treatment. The treatment of choice is surgery, during which the lump or lumps and sometimes the armpit lymph nodes are removed and after that it is followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But I have always wondered if you can survive breast cancer without chemo treatment.

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Not all the people tolerate such a huge amount of medicines that are given during chemo and many react really bad, I mean they have rashes and coloured spots all over the skin, a permanent burning sensation on the skin, nausea and many others. Not to mention the unpleasant fact that you lose your hair so, besides losing one breast or even two - which are considered to be the symbols of your feminity, you can lose all your hair now and be bald and you will feel sick and ugly and just miserable. So a lot of women ask their oncologist doctors: “Can you survive breast cancer without chemo treatment?”.

Well, apparently you can, if you belong to the right category of people. Now medicine has made huge progresses and doctors have succeeded to develop a way of finding out what kind of treatment is the best for every breast cancer patient. They have to run some tests called “the triple test” that is supposed to find out if the tumour present in the breast is sensitive to a certain hormone - estrogen, testosteron.

This is done in the lab where the doctor examines the tumour sample that was removed during surgery (either a lumpectomy or a mastectomy) and if they can find some hromone receptors at the margin of the tumour, then these patients will not have to follow chemotherapy, but hormone therapy. So they will have to take only one pill that will inhibit the body from producing that hormone and this is a lot better than having to take all the pills or have the huge IV line in your arm for so long.

Of course, I also found another answer to this question when surfing the internet pages, but I highly doubt its beneficial effects. I am talking about the natural remedies advertised so much on the internet and also in different newspapers. I do not deny the fact that herbs and plants have a certain medical value and that they can influence us for the better, but here is only limited action they can take. They can make your immune system stronger and also your whole body. But I can’t see how just some herbs will be able to remove cancer tumours without using a scalpel or any other similar tool.

Any way, whatever you may choose, make sure your oncologist knows everything about it in order not to interfere with your medical treatment. So, as you can see, even if progesses are made really slowly, because of all the tests and clinical trials doctors have to make, I can see real advances in this field and I am very confident in the success of the attempt doctors do to find a cure for cancer.