The blood and circulatory system and cancer. The lymphatic system and how cancer affects it. The lymphatic system and cancer. The immune system and how cancer affects it. The immune system and cancer. The hormone system and how cancer affects it. Stage 4 is the highest stage. The stage of the cancer is very important in choosing the best treatment for a person.
Ask your doctor about your cancer's stage and what it means for you. When cancer cells break away from a tumor, they can travel to other areas of the body through either the bloodstream or the lymph system.
Cancer cells can travel through the bloodstream to reach distant organs. If they travel through the lymph system, the cancer cells may end up in lymph nodes. Either way, most of the escaped cancer cells die or are killed before they can start growing somewhere else.
But one or two might settle in a new area, begin to grow, and form new tumors. This spread of cancer to a new part of the body is called metastasis.
In order for cancer cells to spread to new parts of the body, they have to go through several changes. You also might find it harder to swallow, sleep and speak. Saliva substitutes, sugarless gum or candy, humidifiers or medications can help.
Our cancer dietitians can also offer remedies. Eye problems: Chemotherapy can increase the risk of dry eye syndrome and cataracts. Fatigue : Feeling tired is common among cancer survivors. Exercise, relaxation skills and strategies to preserve your energy can help. Hair loss : Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause temporary hair loss.
Hearing loss: Chemotherapy medications and high doses of radiation therapy to the brain can damage hearing. Let your provider know right away if you notice changes. Heart issues: Chemotherapy and radiation to the chest can damage the heart and blood vessels.
Your provider might recommend a healthy diet, weight loss, exercise, medications and other steps. Hormonal changes: Hormone treatments to fight cancer can cause side effects such as joint pain, fatigue, memory loss, mood changes, reduced sex drive and weight gain. Your provider might suggest hormone replacement or couples therapy to help intimacy.
Hypothyroidism: Radiation therapy can cause your thyroid gland to produce too little thyroid hormone. Effects can include constipation, dry skin, temperature sensitivity and weight gain. Medication can help. Incontinence: Newer surgical techniques have made this less likely, but urine leakage can be a problem if you had your prostate or bladder removed because of cancer. Treatment may include exercises, behavior management, medication, and in some cases, surgery.
Infection: Chemotherapy can deplete infection-fighting white blood cells, leaving you vulnerable to infections. Hand-washing, staying clean and using extra care with food safety are preventive measures. They do know that cancer is not contagious. You can't catch it from someone else who has it — cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are.
So don't be afraid of other kids — or anyone else — with cancer. You can talk to, play with, and hug someone with cancer.
Kids can't get cancer from anything they do either. Some kids think that a bump on the head causes brain cancer or that bad people get cancer.
This isn't true! Kids don't do anything wrong to get cancer. But some unhealthy habits, especially cigarette smoking or drinking too much alcohol every day, can make you a lot more likely to get cancer when you become an adult. It can take a while for a doctor to figure out a kid has cancer. That's because the symptoms cancer can cause — weight loss, fevers, swollen glands, or feeling overly tired or sick for a while — usually are not caused by cancer. When a kid has these problems, it's often caused by something less serious, like an infection.
With medical testing, the doctor can figure out what's causing the trouble. If the doctor suspects cancer, he or she can do tests to figure out if that's the problem. A doctor might order X-rays and blood tests and recommend the person go to see an oncologist say: on-KAH-luh-jist. An oncologist is a doctor who takes care of and treats cancer patients. The oncologist will likely run other tests to find out if someone really has cancer. If so, tests can determine what kind of cancer it is and if it has spread to other parts of the body.
Based on the results, the doctor will decide the best way to treat it. One test that an oncologist or a surgeon may perform is a biopsy say: BY-op-see. During a biopsy, a piece of tissue is removed from a tumor or a place in the body where cancer is suspected, like the bone marrow.
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