meraMD's Doctor Community

Richard Zuber wasn't surprised when his doctor told him he had prostate cancer. For years, prostate-specific antigen tests, which measure a protein in the blood produced by prostate tissue, showed elevated levels. A biopsy led to the diagnosis in January 2008. A week later, he was on the phone lining up proton therapy, a state-of-the-art cancer treatment he had researched on the Internet. There are five centers in the United States that offer the treatment,...

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I will be doing a series of posts on Breast Cancer. In these posts I will mainly cover topics related to breast cancer i.e. symptoms, causes, tests and diagnosis, possible treatments. I have decided to start with symptoms. Common symptoms for breast cancer include -  Discharge from your nipple that is not a breast milk A change in how your breast or nipple feels A change in how your breast or nipple looks A nipple...

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New Delhi: It’s like a guided missile with beneficial spinoffs for cancer patients. A relatively new radiation treatment, Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT), can now pinpoint the exact location of cancer and direct radiation towards it, improving survival rates. Most tumours move, either due to digestion, elimination or breathing, leading to radiation getting diffused and damaging surrounding tissues. IGRT was introduced in India in 2007 and is used for cancers where movement is expected: lung, breast...

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Melbourne: Australian health experts have warned that topselling mouthwashes can cause oral cancer and should be pulled from supermarket shelves immediately. The experts issued the warning after investigating latest scientific evidence linking alcohol-containing mouthwashes to the deadly disease. The investigation concludes that there is now ‘sufficient evidence’ that “alcoholcontaining mouthwashes contribute to the increased risk of development of oral cancer”. The mouthwash contains ethanol, which is believed to allow cancer-causing substances to permeate the lining...

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Here is summary of what World Health Organization has discovered about prevention of cancer. Tobacco control: Tobacco is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world today. It causes 80-90% of all lung cancer deaths, and about 30% of all cancer deaths in developing countries, including deaths from cancer of the oral cavity, larynx, oesophagus and stomach. Correct diet: Dietary modification is another important approach to cancer prevention. There is a link between...

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