Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by abnormal cell growth which can lead to an invasion of other healthy body parts. It is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and affects people of all ages indiscriminately although risk factors like age, exposure to cancer causing substances, smoking and diet make some people more susceptible to the disease. There are more than a hundred types of cancer with the most common ones including breast cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, abdomen cancer and liver cancer. The diagnosis of cancer begins when the doctor recognizes cancer-related symptoms in a patient followed by lab tests or imaging procedures which include CT, PET and Nuclear scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, and x-rays. A biopsy may also be carried out using needles, endoscopes or surgery. The staging involves the observation of how far cancer has spread and the progression is described using numerical numbers zero to four. Cancer and the medications administered to treat it have adverse effects like hair loss, weight loss, and nausea which lead to complications like weight loss and wasting, immunity weakness and interference with the central nervous system.
When a doctor suspects that their patient may be having cancer from their signs and symptoms they immediately start the diagnosis process (Dahlin, Coyne & Ferrell, 2016). The choice of the diagnosis method is determined by several factors including the patient’s age, personal and family medical history and the symptoms they exhibit. The diagnosing process may be done using lab tests which use urine, blood and other body samples to determine if the patient is sick or not (Yarbro, Wujcik & Gobel, 2017). Blood tests may include complete blood count tests which are used to determine the number of different blood cells in a patient's body, and an abnormal count could suggest that the patient is unhealthy. Blood protein tests look for immunoglobulins levels which are higher in sick people while tumor marker tests and circulating tumor cell tests detect tumor cells in the patients’ blood (Pedersen, Koktved & Nielsen, 2012). Blood tests are however rarely used singularly to diagnose cancer in the patients.
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Imaging procedures are also used in the diagnosing process (Yarbro et.al., 2017). The procedures include a CT Scan which involves introducing a dye into the patient's body to make screening easy or a nuclear scan which involves the injection of radioactive tracer to measure the radioactivity in the body. Ultrasounds are also used to produce the sonograms used in the diagnostic process, and PET scans give a 3D image of the internal organs while X-rays are also used to take pictures of the patient's body (Silver & Baima, 2013). The most reliable form of diagnosis is the use of biopsy which involves the extraction of a sample tissue from the body and placing it under a microscope to track cancer cells. A fine needle aspiration biopsy is carried out using a hollow needle attached to a syringe to extract tissue from the body part of interest while a core needle biopsy uses a larger needle to collect a larger tissue volume (Dahlin et.al., 2016). Doctors also use vacuum and image directed biopsy to collect tissue as well as using endoscopes and surgical means to access the body parts suspected of having cancerous cells.
Once the diagnosis is made and the results test positive for cancer, the doctors then proceed to determine the stage of cancer which is determined by how far it has spread to determine the right treatment to stop or slow down its progression (Silver & Baima, 2013). Staging systems are used to convey information about the location of the tumor, the type of the cancer cells, how big the tumor is, the extent to which cancer has spread and to predict the path the cells may take. The TNM system is the most common in which the T represents the size and position of the primary tumor, N represents the extent to which cancer has spread and M to the assessment of whether the cancerous cells have affected other body parts (Dahlin et.al., 2016). The staging is also determined using binary form counting from stage 0 to stage IV. In stage zero the patient has abnormal cells in their body, but they have not yet become cancerous, but they have they may if not checked. In stages one, two, and three the cancer is visible and the higher the numerical, the larger the tumor and the wider it has infected other tissues (Pedersen et.al., 2012). In the final stage, cancer has progressed to other body parts.
In the various stages, cancer causes different types of complications to the patient some resulting from the illness itself and others from the interaction of the treatments with the patients’ bodies (Silver & Baima, 2013). One of cancer complications is interference with the immune system of the patient. In some cases, the cancer cells may trigger the immune system to start destroying even the healthy cells leaving the body susceptible to infections. If cancer spreads to the bone marrow, it further leads to lowered immunity in the patient's body and the use of steroids too (Yarbro et.al., 2017). One of the side effects of cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy is the destruction of the reduction of the production of the white blood cells and neutrophils in the blood which leads to further weakening of the immune system. Other treatments like using drips and catheters expose the patient's body to bacteria causing infections and with the weakened immunity diseases take root (Pedersen et.al., 2012). The complications from cancer are treated using immunotherapy which a treatment program aimed at stopping or slowing down the progression of the cancer cells and boosting the immune system’s ability to fight the cancer cells. The various types of immunotherapy are monoclonal antibodies, oncolytic virus therapy, T-cell therapy and cancer vaccines therapy as well as non-specific immunotherapies like administration of interferons and interleukins (Dahlin et.al., 2016). Therapy helps reduce and manage the discomfort from these particular complications and helps the patients in the management of their conditions.
Another cancer-related complication is the adverse effect it has on the nervous and brain systems and functioning in patients (Dahlin et.al., 2016). Cancer that affects the nervous system leads to impairment of the patient’s cognitive abilities leading to memory loss, slowness to finding solutions to problems and headaches and stroke like symptoms. An attack on the nervous system leads to dizziness, body movement coordination problems, seizures, loss of the ability to hold objects or even mobility and difficulty in speech (Silver & Baima, 2013). Cancer treatments that lead to nervous and brain dysfunctions include chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, opioid pain relievers, and anticonvulsants. Patients experiencing this problem are treated using palliative care which is focused on the management, prevention and relieving of these side effects and complications (Pedersen et.al., 2012). They are also treated with surgery and radiation therapy.
Other complications of cancer are weight loss and wasting and hair loss in patients (Silver & Baima, 2013). Cancer causes lack of appetite in patients and is occasioned by diarrhea, constipation and nausea factors that discourage the patients' healthy eating habits. Cancer also causes pain and overall discomfort, fatigue, and weakness of the body which makes patients ability to eat adversely affected. Additionally, cancer deprives the healthy cells off of nutrients and this further triggers the weight loss in the patients (Dahlin et.al., 2016). Cancer treatments like chemotherapy also lead to the hair loss in patients since the strong medications administered during the procedures attack even the healthy cells including those in the hair roots. The hair loss affects the whole body and could range from thinning to complete balding (Yarbro et.al., 2017). To lessen the weight loss complications, steroid medications are administered to increase the patients' appetite although the use of these drugs is carefully monitored due to the negative effects if used excessively. Patients are also put on intravenous nutrient therapy which involves injecting nutrients into the patients through tubes (Pedersen et.al., 2012). For the hair loss, some treatments are recommended although they are not a hundred percent effective including cryotherapy which is aimed at countering the effects of the chemotherapy by slowing the blood flow and application of Rogaine to activate hair re-growth.
In sum, a cancer diagnosis is done through biopsy, screening and laboratory tests to determine if cancer cells are present and if there how far it has progressed in the patient's body. The staging of cancer follows systems like TNM system and the numerical system with each number representing the advancement of cancer as it increases. The complications for cancer include the negative impact on the mind and the central nervous system, compromising of the immunity of the patients, hair loss, weight loss, and other chemical changes in the body. The methods used to lessen the physical and psychological effects include therapies and administration of medications to the patients as well as palliative treatment.
References
Dahlin, C., Coyne, P., & Ferrell, B. (2016). Advanced practice palliative nursing . New York: Oxford University Press.
Pedersen, B., Koktved, D. P., & Nielsen, L. L. (2012). Living with side effects from cancer treatment - a challenge to target information. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 27 (3), 715-723. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6712.2012.01085.x
Silver, J. K., & Baima, J. (2013). Cancer Prehabilitation. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 92 (8), 715-727. doi:10.1097/phm.0b013e31829b4afe
Yarbro, C. H., Wujcik, D., & Gobel, B. H. (2017). Cancer nursing: principles and practice . Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
