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Posts Tagged ‘lung cancer’

What Is Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery?

November 23rd, 2009 Brian Rodane No comments

Until recently, most surgical procedures that were performed to eliminate lung cancer (LC) required the surgeon to make a long incision in the patient’s chest. The ribs were either removed or spread apart in order that the surgeon could gain access to the affected site. While that strategy is still used for some types of lung cancer surgery, there are minimally invasive techniques that are being employed more regularly.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the three types of surgeries that doctors perform on patients who are suffering from LC. We’ll also describe how new technology and tools are making it unnecessary to open the patient’s chest.

Types Of Surgical Procedures

If the disease is still in its early stages (stages I or II) and has not spread to other sites, a doctor will normally perform a wedge resection. This is a procedure in which the tumor is removed along with a small portion of surrounding tissue. Approximately one in four diagnosed cases can be treated with a wedge resection. It’s worth noting that this strategy does not entirely preclude a recurrence of cancerous cells.

If the disease has spread within the lung, but is still contained within it (that is, it has not fully metastasized), a lobectomy can be performed. The doctor will remove an entire lobe. If more than one lobe is affected, the doctor may perform a pneumonectomy. This is the removal of the entire lung.

A pneumonectomy still often requires opening the chest cavity because the surgical team must have complete access to the site in order to remove the organ. A thoracoscopic lobectomy can be performed without the need to spread the patient’s ribcage. This is a minimally invasive procedure during which a surgeon makes several small incisions into the patient’s chest. He will then use robotic arms appended with surgical instruments to access the site and remove the affected lobe. The same strategy can be used to perform a wedge resection.

This minimally invasive lung cancer surgical procedure offers far more accuracy than can be achieved by opening the chest.

Other Forms Of Treatment

If the disease has metastasized, surgery will not be sufficient to eliminate it. Your doctor may suggest chemotherapy or radiation therapy, either as a primary treatment path or as an adjunct path. Both can be used for small-cell and non-small cell LC. Chemotherapy uses specific drugs (administered in pill form, intravenously, or both) to kill cancerous cells. Radiation therapy uses high-intensity beams to accomplish the same goal. For late-stage cases of LC, a combination of all three (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy) may be necessary.

Treating lung cancer surgically is no longer limited to opening the patient’s chest. A growing number of surgeons are proving that minimally invasive procedures are safer, more effective, and can dramatically reduce the patient’s recovery time.

Find the right doctor for Lung Cancer Treatment or mitral valve repair.

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Electronic Cigarettes – Life Savers or Dangerous Devices

November 21st, 2009 Marc Riley No comments

Electronic cigarettes are recent inventions that seek to replace the unhealthy cigarettes. But are electronic cigarettes just as dangerous as the regular ones? Are they just marketers’ efforts to make more money? To talk electronic cigarettes, let’s first go over some basic facts.

What Makes Tobacco Cigarettes Dangerous? The regular tobacco cigarettes are a health hazard because the smoke contains thousands of chemicals. These chemicals include carbon monoxide, tar, and a number of carcinogens. These substances can cause cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The second hand version of the same smoke is even more deadly than the original. When the smoke exits the smoker’s lungs, it cools down, which allows it to better invade bystanders’ lungs.

What is in the Electronic Cigarette Vapor Most electronic cigarettes generate a smoke-like vapor through an atomizer, which heats a solution into vapor and delivers it to the user. The solution, which is completely formulated by man, contains a number of substances. These substances include water, glycerin (food additive), nicotine, and flavors. The number of substances in this nicotine solution is far fewer than the chemicals present in regular tobacco smoke, which has more than 3,000 distinct and harmful components. But is electronic cigarette safe to use? Let’s have the nicotine talk first.

Nicotine Safety What about the nicotine in electronic cigarettes? Isn’t it carcinogenic as well? Nicotine, contrary to its infamous image, does not cause cancer. It is actually the other chemicals in tobacco smoke that are carcinogenic. But since nicotine usually comes with cigarettes, it suffers from the negative images of lung cancer.

As for its addictiveness, nicotine is only mildly so. Still, smokers find regular cigarettes hard to quit because the chemicals and the physical act of smoking both contribute to the habit. While smoking electronic cigarettes is not quitting, you at least knock the habit down to only nicotine as the active ingredient.

So Are Electronic Cigarettes Really Safe to Use? If you ask a doctor if you should smoke anything, the answer is mostly likely to be “no”. But if you do smoke, the electronic cigarette is absolutely safer than regular cigarettes. It lacks the dangerous chemicals that cause lung cancer and literally stops smokers from killing themselves.

Some opponents may argue that electronic cigarettes only give people an excuse to continue smoking. They could be right, if the product steers smokers away from quitting to settling for the next best (worse) thing. However, given the fact that a majority of chronic smokers simply accept their fate and continue to use cigarettes, the electronic cigarette is a much, much safer and attractive alternative. The product mimics the appearance and the nicotine level of a real cigarette and gives the user the option of reducing health risks without actually quitting.

Marc Riley is a smoker and an electronic cigarette enthusiast. He strongly encourages all regular tobacco users to make the switch to Electronic Cigarette before they lose any more of their health and money. Go to his website now at SmokeReview to get the latest information on electronic cigarette products.

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Cancer and Tumours Beaten Using Traditional Herbal Remedies and Alternative Medicine. Fact or Fiction?

November 16th, 2009 Grahaam Maartin No comments

Just what are the facts about alternative medicines and herbal products and do they actually work? That is the subject I am going to address. But the initial results seem to say an emphatic yes! Ask yourself the question. Are you frightened by the thought of getting cancer? Does the word “cancer” worry you? The word itself is very emotive isn’t it? Well now it seems that there is some very good ‘natural’ help available to you, its called Graviola!

Medical practitioners and doctors of today traditionally frown on the use of alternative or herbal remedies, often describing them as ‘quack’ or ‘fringe’ medicines, simply because they are outside the range of subjects taught in medical school. Even though some of these alternative or herbal remedies show tremendous potential and have been used successfully for generations by local practitioners and shamans.

However, there is growing evidence to support the fact that many of these herbs may really be quite beneficial to you. One of these herbs in particular ‘Graviola’ is showing some quite remarkable results, often, in cases where traditional treatment and or chemotherapy don’t work. What would you do? would you use it?

In 2001 the Health Sciences Institute or HSI had a feature article with the headline “Billion-dollar Drug Company nearly squashes astounding research on natural cancer killer”. It goes on to say. “Colon and breast cancer conquered with miracle tree from the Amazon found to be 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy”. That name of that tree was Graviola! OK, you ask, so what exactly is Graviola?

Graviola is an indigenous to South America and some parts of the Amazon Rainforests It’s not exactly big either growing only 5 to 6 metres high. But in regards to having cancer attacking properties, it’s massive! Anyone interested in beating cancer should know more about this life saver.

Plenty of research has already been done and has found that many of the phytochemicals or annonaceous acetogenins (These are the chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants) found in the leaves, seeds and stem of Graviola trees are cytotoxic against various cancer or tumour cells. All these plant parts are used in natural medicine.

Excellent news because, quote:- (Cytotoxic: Toxic to cells, cell-toxic, cell-killing. Any agent or process that kills cells. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are forms of cytotoxic therapy.) The HSI says in this article that the tree has undergone more than 20 laboratory studies and tests since the’70s, where it’s been shown to: Effectively target and kill malignant cells in 12 different types of cancer, including lung, Prostate, colon, breast, and pancreatic cancer Be 10,000 times stronger in killing colon cancer cells than Adriamycin, a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug. Without harming healthy cells, it can selectively hunt down and kill cancer cells, unlike chemotherapy.

Back in’76 a plant screening program by the National Cancer Institute also showed that Graviola displayed active cytotoxicity against cancer cells and various researchers have been following up on this research ever since and have found that Graviola was a cancer killing powerhouse. These Herbal products have been in use worldwide almost since the time when man first walked on the earth. If you or your loved ones suffer from this terrible ailment, then I would strongly recommend that you read the HSI article in full here. It’s staggering!

Well can Graviola help you in your fight against cancer? It seems that the answer is yes absolutely!

Learn more about HSI Article on Graviola. Stop by the site where you can find out all about Graviola and what it can do for you or your loved ones.

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