Asbestos- uses, dangers, disposal…

You or a loved one has previously noticed some of the disconcerting symptoms of cancer and been diagnosed with a malignancy.

If you’re now fighting that cancer and are curious about immune system supplements, both clinical and natural, keep reading for an overview of some of the most popular methods.

BRMs (Biologic Response Modifiers)

Biologic response modifiers basically affect the way in which your immune system responds to certain defenses and attacks. They can also help restore and regenerate damage immune system cells. They are a form of immunotherapy, vaccine and immune-boosting supplement all in one.

The most commonly used type of biologic response modifiers is interferon. Interferon is a protein molecule that can help fight off certain diseases, like cancer. However, for treatment purposes, synthetic interferon is created in a lab and then administered to the patient to supplement the immune system. Interferon won’t cure cancer, but it will improve life spans and help control the disease.

Vitamin Supplements

There are mountains of studies that prove certain foods and vitamins are critical immune system supplements and help to restore the body after cancer while also preventing it.

The most expansive and possibly the most controversial studies were conducted by Linus Pauling. One of Pauling’s more interesting works compared the longevity and success rates of individuals with similar types of cancer and who were of similar ages.

Pauling placed one hundred of these patients on high doses of Vitamin C and left the remaining thousand with no vitamin therapy whatsoever. The individuals placed on the Vitamin C therapy lived significantly longer than the patients who received no vitamin therapy.

One of the biggest advantages behind Vitamin C therapy is that there are few side effects or downsides. Vitamin C is not toxic, it’s water-soluble and excesses are simply eliminated from the body. It’s one of the immune system supplements that has many benefits but few drawbacks.

Diet

Diet all by itself won’t cure cancer, but it can help slow it down, improve recovery and possibly prevent it. Nutrition is a major part of how well your body recovers after cancer, the strength of your immune system and how you deal with cancer and the cancer treatments.

One example of eating for the benefit of the immune system is all-organic diets, which are growing in popularity. Organic foods are foods that are all natural, have not been irradiated and have no chemical additives. For people trying to heal cancer, chemical additives are thought to be just one more foreign substance that can stress the body’s system.

That means instead of working hard to process and deal with harsh chemicals, your body is free to fight off cancer cells or simply focus on healing itself.

Whenever a person begins to experience and recognize his or her own symptoms of cancer, the signs can definitely create a lump in the throat at just the thought of a malignancy diagnosis and then the likely ensuing cancer treatments. This concern is even intensified at the prospect of cancer in the bladder.

Bladder cancer symptoms are very basic - blood in the urine and a sudden change in urination habits. So why, then, are so many instances of the disease going undiagnosed?

Approximately 54,300 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. every year, and over 12,000 people die of the disease. It is the sixth most common cancer in the country. And though the five-year survival rate sits at an impressive 81 percent, the chances for full recovery are dramatically improved if the disease is caught early.

That’s the reason recognizing and diagnosing bladder cancer symptoms is crucial. So, if you’re interested in learning more about the signs of bladder cancer and potential causes of the disease, read on.

Symptoms of Bladder Cancer

Blood in the Urine: Blood in the urine is the single more important sign of bladder cancer. This symptom can also be associated with other diseases such as kidney cancer or gall stones, but is most common in bladder cancer.

Change in Urination Habits: Patients often complain of feeling an almost constant need to urinate, an urgency that’s accompanied by frequent urination. This can be a sign of bladder cancer, along with urinary incontinence.

Causes and Risk Factors Associated with Bladder Cancer

Smoking: Like many cancers, smoking tobacco products is a major cause. In fact, smokers are twice as likely to develop the disease. Among men, smoking is the cause of 50% of bladder cancer deaths. In women, that number drops to 30%.

The carcinogens in cigarettes make their way into the blood stream and finally through the bladder and into the urine, which is why they’re such a major cause of bladder cancer.

Occupational Exposure: Industrial chemicals known as aromatic amines, like beta-napthylamine and benzidine which are sometimes used in the dye industry, can be a contributing factor for bladder cancer.

Other industries that use organic chemicals can also put workers at an increased risk - for example, rubber makers, leather factories, textiles and paint and printing companies.

Race: Bladder cancer is twice as common in Caucasians than African Americans.

Age: Most of the people diagnosed with bladder cancer are in their late sixties. In fact, less than a percent of people diagnosed are under 40. Essentially, the chances for developing the disease increase with age.

Lifelong Bladder Issues: Patients who suffer from chronic bladder problems like urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, bladder stones, incontinence or other bladder issues could have a higher risk of developing the disease.

If you have been exposed to or belong to any of the above risk factors or categories, it’s critical that you understand and watch for bladder cancer symptoms like blood in the urine or sudden changes in your urination habits.

The prospect of facing a cancer diagnosis after agonizing over the recognition of disconcerting symptoms is troubling enough for anyone. But when it’s your own child dealing with similar concerns and the weighty decisions associated with potential cancer treatments, this is harder still. And unfortunately, malignancies among children are not so uncommon.

Childhood osteosarcoma is a form of malignant bone cancer and the 6th most common form of cancer in children under the age of 15. The disease affects over 500 adults and 400 children every year, with a two-thirds survival rate.

Causes of Osteosarcoma

Unfortunately, the causes behind osteosarcoma are not known. Theories exist about environmental triggers such as fluoride in drinking water or exposure to radium.

Symptoms Associated with Osteosarcoma

The first complaint or symptom that most patients experience is pain at the tumor location - typically this discomfort is more severe at night. Large tumors can often look like swelling. Another feature is that the bone affected by the cancer is frequently weaker and more susceptible to fracture.

Over 50% of all cases of childhood osteosarcoma occur around the knee area.

Risk Factors

Age

The risk for developing osteosarcoma peaks during the adolescent growth period. Some researchers think that there may be a correlation between rapid bone growth development and a child’s risk for developing the cancer.

Gender

Osteosarcoma typically occurs in males and is seen twice as frequently as in young women.

Exposure to Radiation

If a patient has been subjected to radiation treatment for other cancers or conditions, they will have a higher risk of contracting the disease.

Other Bone Diseases

Those with other non-cancerous bone diseases, such as Paget’s disease of the bone or a family history of osteosarcoma, have an increased risk of later developing the malignancy, but usually as an adult.

Genetics

Children with inherited and rare cancer syndromes, like retinoblastoma, are more prone to developing childhood osteosarcoma.

Different Types of Osteosarcoma

There are three sub-types of osteosarcoma that can be recognized by how they appear on X-rays and under a microscope. Some of these sub-types have a better prognosis than others.

The three sub-types of osteosarcoma are high-grade, intermediate and low grade. High-grade is a conventional development of the disease characterized by small cell formation. Intermediate grade is periosteal, meaning the membrane around the bones is affected. Low grade is also periosteal, but also includes low grade intrasseous.

Treating Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is sometimes treated with surgery - typically, the biopsy and surgical treatment of the disease are done by the same surgeon. The surgical treatment is either amputation of the affected limb or limb-sparing surgery.

Before deciding on surgery, patients and parents should thoroughly consult with their surgeon about how best to eradicate the disease while also retaining as much of the affected limb as possible.

Despite the prevalence of surgery, most cases of childhood osteosarcoma are treated with chemotherapy in conjunction with surgery. There are a variety of drugs used in osteosarcoma chemotherapy programs, with each dose determined by the individual patient and disease.

At some basic level, we all have an underlying fear of facing cancer in any form, from the identification of abnormal symptoms to the dreaded diagnosis of cancer, and then dealing with cancer treatments. Well, imagine being a mere child and facing the prospect of that same set of steps with Neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma stage 4 is a cancer that has spread to the body’s other areas - such as the bones, lymph nodes, bone marrow, liver, skin or potentially other vital organs.

If your child has been diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, keep reading for more information about the disease, survival rates, risk factors, and common treatments.

A Neuroblastoma Overview

Approximately 650 cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed every year in the U.S. It’s the third most common kind of cancer in children and the most frequent form in infants. Approximately 90 percent of all cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed in children aged 6 and under.

About 30% of all neuroblastoma cases begin in the adrenal glands, another 30% start in the ganglia of the abdomen’s sympathetic nervous system, and the majority of the remainder begin in the neck’s sympathetic ganglia, chest or pelvis.

Rates for Five-Year Survival

With most cases of neuroblastoma, the five year survival rate for children under the age of 1 is an impressive 83%. For kids between 1 and 4, it’s 55% and for children 5 and older, only 40%.

However, for children diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, that survival rate drops to 50-80% for children under the age of one and to 15% for older children.

Treatments Used for Stage 4 of Neuroblastoma

Children who are diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma are considered high risk. They are typically subjected to intensive, high-dosage chemotherapy accompanied by surgery and stem cell transplantations. Typically though, surgery is the first step unless the neuroblastoma has spread too far.

In most cases, treatment involves a combination of medications. The main drugs used to treat children with neuroblastoma are cisplatin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, etoposide and topotecan. These drugs produce a positive response in two thirds of children.

In certain cases, particularly when the cancer has spread too far to be completely removed by surgery - as is the case with the fourth stage of neuroblastoma - chemotherapy is the primary treatment.

Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplants

High-intensity chemotherapy can destroy bone marrow completely. Without marrow, new blood cells won’t develop. To solve this problem, children with neuroblastoma are often treated with high-intensity chemotherapy and then must undergo a bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

Radiation Therapy

Typically, radiation treatments are used as a final attempt to kill any remaining neuroblastoma stage 4 cells after surgery on an affected area.

However, in many instances of late-stage and advanced neuroblastoma, it’s rarely used unless it’s implemented as a pain-management tool or in conjunction with chemotherapy.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that appears in the lungs’ linings. Experts believe that its main cause is contact with asbestos. There are about 3000 new cases reported every year in the United States. Roughly 8 million people have been exposed to asbestos in the last 50 years. Beginning a few decades ago, safety measures were put in place so that asbestos exposure was at first minimized and eventually will be nonexistent. Because of this, some experts believe that mesothelioma will continue to be prevalent until about 2020, and that thereafter it will begin to decline. By then, asbestos exposure should be quite rare.

As with any cancer, it is imperative that the mesothelioma patient is treated as early as possible for best survival odds. However, those who have mesothelioma are at a disadvantage because of the time factor. In many cases, patients first diagnosed with mesothelioma actually had their exposures 20 to 50 years prior. Because of this, patients are usually over the age of 50. In addition, first symptoms are nebulous and can be attributed to many things, which means that diagnosis is very difficult. Because of this, mesothelioma can be quite advanced once it is detected. There is no fully effective treatment available to cure mesothelioma. However, most experts believe that monotherapy is less effective than combination therapy in treating this disease. Mesothelioma treatments continue to be researched.

Studies focusing on mesothelioma survival rate show dismal results, with a mortality rate of almost 100%. Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma survive, on average, six months to two years. However, there are exceptions, which continue to give other mesothelioma patients and their families hope. Patients’ life expectancy depends on many things, including the state of advancement at diagnosis (mesothelioma has four stages), as well as the type of mesothelioma diagnosed. Tissue structures were tested to find the type of cells within, and it was found that sarcomatous cells put the patient’s median survival rate at about 11 months, with 11 months for mixed cells and 12.5 months for epithelial cells.

However, there are other ways to positively influence survival rate if someone has mesothelioma. Approximately 9% of mesothelioma patients survive five years after diagnosis, which shows that there are people who do survive over the long-term with this type of cancer. In some cases, these patients are symptom free. Research continues, so that one day a cure may be found.

If a patient is otherwise healthy at time of diagnosis, then his or her survival rate will be favorably impacted. In addition, if the tumor can be removed fully and is smaller versus larger, this is also going to positively influence survival rate. The amount of fluid in the chest cavity at time of diagnosis is also important. The type of cells present such as was described above is also important. Survival rate is likely to be poor if the cancer has recurred versus whether it has been newly diagnosed.

If you have mesothelioma or a family member does, it’s important to focus on hope. The Internet is a great resource if you find yourself in this situation. You can find groups online with others in the same situation, and support and encouragement with this disease is important. In addition, you’ll be privy to the latest treatments available for the disease. This can make it difficult situation much easier to deal with. And of course, your health care practitioner will also likely have resources he or she can give you.

The lung cancer possibility my uncle faced was a horrible shock. The shortness of breath and chest pain we blamed on walking pneumonia now had a nastier cause. Worse yet, it was a cause that couldn’t be cured by a good, strong round of antibiotics. He was sent off for a biopsy, which gave us even worse news. He had mesothelioma. This diagnosis was worse because it had less chance of survival than “traditional” lung cancer. We were mad, since this was something he had no blame in having developed. The doctor said it is often a result of exposure to asbestos dust, usually on the job. That’s when my uncle had to find a Texas Mesothelioma Attorney, since that’s where he’d worked and where most of the businesses still were. The suspected cause of his illness was asbestos dust. He was probably exposed when he worked in construction at industrial and commercial sites. I was told millions were exposed for over forty years doing exactly that time. But the idea that a lot of other people faced the same disease as took a toll on him didn’t make his deterioration any easier. Which job at what time, or even just a slow exposure over time from multiple employers, several of which could have been at fault – who do you blame? More importantly, who do you turn to for support for something like this? Our attorney was wonderful in that regard. One of the problems is that the claims are so often denied up front. There was a rush of anyone with any kind of lung cancer or breathing problem to get treatment from the State funds for this disorder. That’s when we really needed our Texas Mesothelioma attorney, to get the extra tests and repeat case filings until things were paid for. Our lives were focused on getting one more day, trying to get one more year. Unfortunately, due to backlog, these cases drag on for years now. We still need his attorney, even after his death, in order to collect death benefits for his kids.