Posts Tagged ‘Uncontrolled’

Melanoma – a type of skin cancer. What are causes, symptoms, risk factors and treatment?

Melanoma is a kind of skin cancer. Melanocytes are the cells present in skin. This type of cancer occurs when melanocytes starts growing rapidly and uncontrolled. Usually, its a skin disease but sometimes it may also occur in the bowel and eye. This skin cancer can appear on skin or begin as a mole.
Melanomas do not occur only in the areas that are exposed to sun, major area is skin. The most common site in men is the back and the most common site in women is the leg.

CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS OF MELANOMA

- Ultraviolet radiation.
- Ordinary moles that can become cancerous.
- Too many moles increases the risk of melanoma.
- Fair complexion increases the risk of melanoma.
- Family and personal history of melanoma.
- People who have weak immune system.
- People who have bad sunburn.
- Exposure to some harmful chemicals.

SYMPTOMS OF MELANOMA

- There is a change of color, shape, size of the mole.
- The shape of half is different from other half.
- The edges become rough.
- The edges become irregular.
- The color becomes very uneven.
- The size also changes.

TYPES OF MELANOMA

According to the appearance, melanoma is divided into different types:
- Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM)
- Melanoma caused by sun damaged skin of face, scalp and neck.
- Melanoma caused on soles of feet, palms of hands or under the nails.

Diagnosis is done by the doctor by doing a biopsy. After the diagnosis, staging is done which tells how thick is the tumor and how deeply it has affected the skin.

TREATMENT FOR MELANOMA

- The standard treatment for melanoma is surgery.
- Tumor along with the tissues surrounding it are removed so that the chances of tumor spreading is decreased.
- The thickness of the melanoma decides the extent of surgery.
- The doctor can also do radiation therapy, chemotherapy and medications or a combination of different methods.

Complication of melanoma may include damage to tissues, fatigue, nausea, weakness, pain and spread to other organs.

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Brain Tumor – Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Tumor

Diagnosis of brain tumors include physical examination, neurological examination, brain scan(s) and/or a biopsy. The doctor can also ask for other tests like :
- angiogram in which dye injected into the bloodstream flows into the blood vessels in the brain to make them show up on an x-ray.
- skull x-ray which would check deposits of calcium caused by some brain tumors.
- myelogram which is an x-ray of spine.
Surgeons can obtain tissue to look for tumor cells in three ways like needle biopsy, stereotactic biopsy and biopsy at the same time as treatment.

Treatment for brain tumor depends upon on the size and type of tumor and the general health of the patient. Specialists who treat brain tumors include neurosurgeons, neurooncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists.
- Surgery
- Radiation therapy
- Chemotherapy along with radiation and surgery.
- Tumor size can be reduced by a process called debulking.

Recurrent tumors occur after they are removed and generally they occur at the same place but sometimes they can occur at some other place also. A brain tumor that has been treated with radiation or chemotherapy may disappear or remain in remission, a state in which the tumor cells stop multiplying.

Some side effects include:
- Nausea
- Hair fall
- Weakness and tiredness.
- Headache
- Swelling
- Infection
- Normal tissues can get damaged.
- Changes in personality.
- Speech disorders.
- Fever and chills.
- Fatigue
The goals of rehabilitation depend on the person’s needs and how the tumor has affected daily activities. It includes physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists. Regular follow up is very necessary after the treatment of brain tumor.

Brain Tumor – Causes, Symptoms, Risk Factors and Types

Brain tumor is the name given to an abnormal mass of tissue in which some cells grow and multiply uncontrollably. Brain tumors quite often can be benign, in which case they do not spread to other areas of the brain and are likely to be removed successfully. Malignant tumors, however, tend to spread further, destroying healthy brain tissue and damaging other areas of the brain.
Brain tumors rarely spread to other parts of the body outside of the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS includes the brain and spinal cord.

CAUSES & RISK FACTORS OF BRAIN TUMOR

- Radiation therapy to brain.
- Radiation exposure at head injuries.
- Family history of certain genetic disorders.

SYMPTOMS OF BRAIN TUMOR

- Headaches which can be severe in the morning.
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Difficulty in thinking or speaking.
- Changes in the personality.
- Weakness
- Paralysis in one part or one side of the body.
- Loss of balance.
- Changes in vision.
- Confusion.
- Dizziness or disorientation.
- Memory loss.
- Eye abnormalities.
- Muscle weakness in face, arm or leg.
Brain tumor in children have symptoms like headaches, vomiting, loss of balance, vision problems, lack of coordination, fatigue, weakness, increase in size of head and behavioral changes. Pediatric brain tumors are not contagious. Their causes are unknown.

TYPES OF BRAIN TUMOR

Primary Brain Tumors
- Tumors originate in brain.
- Tumors do not spread to other parts of the body.
- The most common primary brain tumors are gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, vestibular schwannomas, primary CNS lymphomas, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas).
- Gliomas includes astrocytoma which occur in cerebrum and in children, they occur in the brain stem, the cerebrum, and the cerebellum. Brain stem glioma originate in lowest part of brain. Ependymoma glioma arises from cells that line the ventricles or the central canal of the spinal cord. Oligodendroglioma, a rare tumor arises from cells that make the fatty substance that covers and protects nerves.

Secondary Brain Tumors
- The cells spread to the brain from another tumor in a process called metastasis. So, secondary brain tumor is also called metastasis tumor.
- It begins in other part of the body like lung, breast, and kidney as well as malignant melanoma, a skin cancer.
- Secondary tumors are more common than primary tumors.
- Metastatic brain tumors are often referred to as brain metastases or lesions.