QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- What is a clinical trial?
- Does Regional Consultants offer any support services for the emotional and social concerns of cancer patients?
- What is Chemotherapy?
- How Does Chemotherapy Work?
- Who Gives the Chemotherapy?
- What is Lymphedema?
- How Does Radiation Therapy Work?
- Will I Become Radioactive?
- What is Conformal Radiation Therapy?
- What Are the Advantages of Conformal Three Dimensional (3-D) Radiation vs. Conventional Radiation Therapy?
- Who is a Candidate for Seed Implantation?
- What is Lymphocytosis?
- What is the Difference Between Serum, Plasma and Whole Blood?
What
is a clinical trial?
Cancer clinical trials allow physicians to evaluate new approaches to cancer treatment. It is a research study designed to answer questions about ways to prevent, detect, diagnose or treat an illness. Participants can range from old, young, healthy, or ill depending on the particular trial. Clinical trials offer great insight into the fight against cancer. They allow doctors to evaluate different treatment procedures and medical treatment given to a group of subjects. Participants who take part not only contribute to the knowledge of cancer, but receive medical treatment in the process.
Does
Regional Consultants offer any support services for the emotional
and social concerns of cancer patients?
We believe firmly that coping with the disease helps increase your likelihood of survival. That’s why we offer oncology social work services for patients receiving outpatient or inpatient cancer treatment. Our staff is available to answer questions you or your loved ones may have regarding the impact cancer has on your job, your finances and your life. We can also provide referrals to support groups, benefit programs and other community resources for cancer patients.
What
is Chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs that can destroy cancer cells. These drugs often are called “anticancer” drugs.
How
Does Chemotherapy Work?
Cells in the body naturally grow and die. However, when cancer occurs, abnormal cells in the body continue to divide and grow out of control. Chemotherapy are anticancer drugs that stop these cells from growing or multiplying. Chemotherapy may be given as a single drug or a combination of drugs. Combinations are used because different drugs attack the cancer cells in different ways, some drugs may make other drugs more potent and combinations help to avoid the problem of cancer cells becoming immune to a certain drug. For many kinds of cancer, a combination of drugs provides more effective cancer-kill with fewer harmful effects on healthy tissues. Harm to healthy cells is what causes side effects, but cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy. One can expect to experience nausea, fatigue, hair loss and other symptoms as the body deals with this treatment.
Who
Gives the Chemotherapy?
Medical oncologists or registered nurses typically administer chemotherapy. Registered nurses who give the chemotherapy are certified OCN or AOCN from the Oncology Nursing Society and are educated in oncology, drug side effects and nursing interventions that can help you manage treatment regimens.
What is Lymphedema?
Lymphedema is the swelling of any limb due to insufficient draining of the lymphatic system. Lymph vessels collect a fluid that is made up of protein, water, fats and wastes from the cells of the body. Lymph nodes filter waste materials and foreign products, then return the fluid to your blood. Patients undergoing cancer treatment are at risk of developing lymphedema if there is damage to the lymph nodes and vessels. Symptoms often include aching, weakness, redness, heaviness, or tightness in one of your limbs.
How Does Radiation
Therapy Work?
Both malignant and normal cells in your body must reproduce for survival. To reproduce, these cells need healthy genetic material or DNA. During radiation therapy, x-rays deposit energy in the area being treated, damaging the DNA of cells and making it impossible for these cells to divide. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, the normal cells are usually able to repair themselves and function properly.
Will I Become Radioactive?
Most of our patients are treated with an external beam radiotherapy. The radiation received is in a form of energy that quickly disappears from the body and at no time does the patient become radioactive. Some patients are treated with radioactive implants that emit radiation during the treatment period. These patients are usually hospitalized and isolated during treatment to prevent exposing others to radiation. Once the implants are removed, these patients emit no further radiation.
What is Conformal
Radiation Therapy?
A radiation therapy that uses computers to create a 3-dimensional picture of the tumor so multiple radiation beams can be shaped to exactly conform to the contour of the treatment area.
What Are The Advantages Of Conformal Three Dimensional (3-D) Radiation Vs. Conventional Radiation
Therapy?
The advantages are simple. Because conformal radiation therapy conforms to the shape of the treatment area, doctors can increase the dosage to the cancerous cells and minimize damage to the healthy tissue, which minimizes side effects.
Who is a Candidate
for Seed Implantation?
Men with prostate cancer that is localized to the prostate (stages T1 and T2) are candidates for seed implantation. Men with more advanced disease may be candidates for seed implantation after radiation treatment. This treatment method will only be administered after consultation with both the urologist and the radiation oncology physicians. During this consultation, doctors will explain all treatment options available for clinically localized prostate cancer. They will present the existing data of these treatment options and outline a course of treatment specific to each patient.
What is Lymphocytosis?
Lymphocytosis is an abnormal increase in the number of lymphocytes in the blood. Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell, which help fight infection. Lymphocytosis is not a disease, but it can be a sign of another problem like chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
What is the Difference
Between Serum, Plasma and Whole Blood?
The term blood means whole blood. Whole blood contains water, proteins, nutrients and blood cells. The cell portion of blood includes red and white blood cells and platelets while the fluid portion is called plasma or serum. Plasma is obtained by separating the liquid portion of the unclotted blood from the cells. Serum is the fluid that remains after the blood has clotted. It contains no cells and no dissolved protein.