BACKGROUND
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WHEN, WHERE, WHY? : CANCER TREATMENTS
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The actual disease of cancer can be traced back to Egypt ibn 3000 BC. However, John Hunter's belief that cancer could be removed helped lead to one of the first treatments- surgically removing tumors.
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One of the first places radiation was used was on two Skin Cancer patients in Russia.
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The goal of cancer treatments is to cure the disease and get rid of this disease which takes away nearly 7.6 million lives this year worldwide.
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There is a grand spectrum of available, and progressing cancer treatments to find the cure; a currently thriving future treatment plan is called Immunotherapy.
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Immunotherapy is using one's own immune system to specifically target the cancer cells directly.
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This future personalized medicine is great because in every case there may be a slight difference thus having personalized medicine would be able to target and cure people better.
Interesting Treatment Unheard of in America
"The Father of Immuotherapy"
"Coley Fluid is a single-agent therapeutic vaccine for cancer . Currently manufactured with a technical sophistication Coley Fluid anchors CHIPSA’s vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy. Coley’s Dendritic Therapy touches all major facets of immunology and holds enormous clinical promise. Scores of clinical studies are aiming the immuno-stimulating power of dendritic cells at tumors and HIV...This awareness is inspiring dendritic-cell-based medical therapies that treat autoimmune and degenerative disorders."
CANCER STATISTICS
Estimated Cancer Mortality Worldwide in 2012: Men
Research is so important in the cancer field, because this disease comes in various shapes and forms, and is ever changing. Since there are over 200 distinctive types, and within each type a difference in everybody, this causes a cure to be hard to find. Along with that, some treatments do not help all cancers, while some treatments help a specific type of cancer.
HOPE IN CANCER TREATMENTS
"The next great breakthrough would be the genomic identification of tumors. A mid-19th-century definition of cancer using histology (what cells look like under a microscope) and we are moving into a 21st definition that takes into account both histology and genomics (how DNA and genes work in a cell). There are tumors that appear cancerous under the microscope but are not malignant in behavior. We are developing ways of predicting biologic behavior and clinical significance of tumors. This will save some people the problems related to treatment and improve our ability to assess our therapies. Today we cure some people who do not need to be cured."
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A new standard for cancer treatment: The cure of some leukemias and lymphomas with combination chemotherapy.
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First tumor to be cured by chemo: The cure of testicular cancer with cisplatin.
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Refining the mastectomy: In breast cancer, we refined how it is treated surgically by removing tumor.
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Invention of hormonal therapy: In the case of prostate cancer, the discovery of the effect of androgens and androgen deprivation therapy (a treatment to reduce the level of hormones in a man’s body to help stop or slow prostate cancer)
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The first cancer screening test: The Pap smear
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Development of mammography and colon cancer screenings