Science For Health Care

After liver cancer is found and staged, your doctor will recommend one or more treatment options. Choosing a treatment plan is a major decision. Take time and think about all of your choices.

When planning your treatment, it is important to take into account is the stage (extent) of the cancer. But you and your cancer care team will also want to think about your age, general state of health, and personal preferences.

It may be a good idea to get a second opinion, especially from a doctor experienced in treating liver cancer. A second opinion can give you more information and help you feel more confident about the treatment plan that you pick. Some insurance companies want a second opinion before they will agree to pay for certain treatments. Almost all will pay for the second opinion.

Surgery

At this time surgery offers the only likely chance to cure liver cancer. Surgery is done either to remove the tumor or do a liver transplant. If all of the cancer that the surgeon can see at the time of the operation can be removed, you have the best outlook for survival. But complete removal of most liver cancers is not possible. Often the cancer is large, is found in many different parts of the liver, or has spread beyond the liver. Also, many people with cirrhosis do not have enough healthy liver left to make surgery an option.

Continue reading »

The prostate is a glandular organ present only in males. Only men develop prostate cancer.

The prostate is normally about 3 cm long (slightly more than 1 inch) and lies at the neck of the bladder and in front of the rectum.

The prostate surrounds the urethra, which is a tubular structure that carries sperm and urine out of the penis.

It produces a thin, milky fluid that is added to the sperm at the time of ejaculation.

Older men often have an enlarged prostate, which is a noncancerous condition called benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) that causes urinary symptoms.
Cancer occurs when normal cells undergo a transformation in which they grow and multiply without normal controls.

As the cells multiply, they form a mass called a tumor.

Tumors are cancerous only if they are malignant. This means that they invade neighboring tissues because of their uncontrolled growth.

They may also travel to remote organs via the bloodstream.

This process of invading and spreading to other organs is called metastasis.

Tumors overwhelm surrounding tissues by invading their space and taking the oxygen and nutrients they need to survive and function.
Almost all prostate cancers arise from the secretory glandular cells in the prostate. Cancer arising from a glandular cell is known as adenocarcinoma. Therefore, almost all prostatic cancers are prostatic adenocarcinomas.
In the United States, cancer of the prostate is a common malignant cancer in men, second only to lung cancer. About 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and about 30,000 men die of the disease each year.

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system

Continue reading »