What is biological therapy?

Biological therapy (BYE-o-loj-ee-cal THER-ah-py) is a type of treatment that works with your immune system. It can help fight cancer or help control side effects (how your body reacts to the drugs you are taking) from other cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

What is the difference between biological therapy and chemotherapy?

Biological therapy and chemotherapy are both treatments that fight cancer. While they may seem alike, they work in different ways. Biological therapy helps your immune system fight cancer. Chemotherapy attacks the cancer cells directly.

How does biological therapy fight cancer?

Doctors are not sure how biological therapy helps your immune system fight cancer. But they think it may:

• Stop or slow the growth of cancer cells.
• Make it easier for your immune system to destroy, or get rid of, cancer cells.
• Keep cancer from spreading to other parts of your body.

What is my immune system and how does it work?

Your immune system includes your spleen, lymph nodes, tonsils, bone marrow, and white blood cells. These all help protect you from getting infections and diseases.

When your immune system works the way it should, it can tell the difference between "good" cells that keep you healthy and "bad" cells that make you sick. But sometimes this doesn't happen. Doctors are doing research to learn why some immune systems don't fight off diseases like cancer.

White blood cells are an important part of your immune system. When your doctor or nurse talks about your white blood cells, he or she may use words like:

• Monocytes (MON-o-cites) are types of white blood cells.
• Lymphocytes (LYM-fo-cites) are types of white blood cells.
• B cells are kinds of lymphocytes.
• T cells are kinds of lymphocytes.
• Natural killer cells are kinds of lymphocytes.

Parts of the immune system

What are some questions to ask my doctor or nurse about biological therapy?

• Why do you recommend biological therapy for me?
  Your treatment choices depend on the type of cancer you have, how far your cancer has spread, and the treatments you have already tried. For some people, biological therapy is the best treatment choice.
• Will biological therapy be my only treatment?
  Some people only need biological therapy. Others also get chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Talk with your doctor about the kind of treatment you will be on and how it can help.
• Where do I go to get my treatment?
  Some biological therapy are pills or shots that you can take at home. Others are given through an IV, and you must go to the hospital or clinic to get them. If this is the case, find out how long you will need to stay at the hospital or clinic.
• How often will I get my treatment?
  Treatment schedules vary. Biological therapy may be given once a day or a couple of times a day. Others are given less often--sometimes once a week, or perhaps just once every month or two. Your doctor will tell you how often you will get your treatment and how long you will need to be on it.
• How much will my treatment cost?
  Talk with your nurse, social worker, or doctor about the cost of your treatment. Make sure to ask if your insurance company pays for biological therapy.
• What side effects can I expect?
  Just like other forms of cancer treatment, biological therapy sometimes causes side effects. Side effects can include:
  • Rashes or swelling where the treatment is injected.
  • Flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fatigue, bone pain, and muscle aches.
  • Lowered blood pressure (blood pressure goes down).

What are cancer vaccines?

Cancer vaccines are a form of biological therapy. While other vaccines (like ones for measles or mumps) are given before you get sick, cancer vaccines are given after you have cancer. Cancer vaccines may help your body fight the cancer and keep it from coming back.

Doctors are learning more all the time about cancer vaccines. They are now doing research about how cancer vaccines can help people diagnosed with melanoma, lymphoma, and kidney, breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, and rectal cancers.

What are the names of some biological therapy?

There are many kinds of biological therapy. Here are the names of some common ones with ways to say them and brief statements about how they are used in cancer care.

Treatments for cancer:

• BCG or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (ba-SIL-us KAL-met gay-RAIN) treats bladder tumors or bladder cancer.
• IL-2 or Interleukin-2 (in-ter-LOO-kin 2) treats certain types of cancer.
• Interferon alpha (in-ter-FEER-on AL-fa) treats certain types of cancer.
• Rituxan or Rituximab (ri-TUX-i-mab) treats non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
• Herceptin (her-SEP-tin) or Trastuzumab treats breast cancer.

Treatments for controlling side effects:

• Neupogen (NU-po-jen) or G-CSF increases white blood cell counts and helps prevent infection in people who are getting chemotherapy.
• Procrit, Epogen, or Erythropoietin (e-RITH-ro-po-i-tin) helps make red blood cells in people who have anemia.
• IL-11, Interleukin-11, Oprelvekin (oh-PREL-ve-kin), or Neumega helps make platelets (a type of blood cell).

How can I learn more about biological therapy research?

Doctors are studying biological therapy in clinical trials--research studies that test new cancer treatments.

To find out about clinical trials of biological therapy, call the Cancer Information Service or look on the Internet at http://cancer.gov/clinical_trials/.

How can I learn more about the treatments I am on?

After you talk with your doctor or nurse, you may also want to do your own "homework" about the treatments you are on. Here are some ways to learn more:

• Visit the MEDLINEplus Web site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html
  Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, this Web site has a lot of information about many types of cancer drugs, including biological therapy.
• Call the Cancer Information Service (CIS) at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the CIS has information about cancer and its treatments.

How can I learn more about cancer and its treatment?

You can find out more from these NCI services:

• Cancer Information Service
  Toll-free: 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237)
  TTY (for deaf and hard-of-hearing callers):
  1-800-332-8615
• NCI Online
  Use http://cancer.gov to reach NCI's Web site

Article Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/biologicaltherapy

You have many choices to make about your cancer treatment. One choice you might be thinking about is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM is the term for medical products and practices that are not part of standard care. Standard care is what medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and allied health professionals, such as registered nurses and physical therapists, practice. Alternative medicine means treatments that you use instead of standard ones. Complementary medicine means nonstandard treatments that you use along with standard ones. Examples of CAM therapies are acupuncture, chiropractic, and herbal medicines.

CAM treatments do not work for everyone, but some methods such as acupuncture might help with nausea, pain and other side effects of cancer treatment. In general, researchers know more about the safety and effectiveness of standard cancer treatments than they do about CAM. To make sure nothing gets in the way of your cancer care, talk to your doctor before you try anything new.

National Cancer Institute

article source : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/canceralternativetherapies.html

What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer Symptoms

By Pam Stephan

Breast cancer begins in a cell, which divides and multiplies at an uncontrolled rate. A small clump of cancer cells are too tiny to be felt, so the earliest stages of breast cancer usually have no symptoms. A mammogram can detect cancer before you can feel a lump, which is why your annual screening mammogram is so important. Some benign breast conditions can seem like cancer, so it’s good to know the difference, and get a health professional to check out worrisome lumps.

Understanding Symptoms
The classic symptom for breast cancer is a lump found in the breast or armpit. An aggressive type of this disease, inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), grows in sheets of tumor cells that invade the skin and resembles a rash. Doing your monthly breast self-exam (BSE) is a great way to be familiar with your breasts’ texture, cyclical changes, size, and skin condition. Early detection is the best way to protect your health and improve your odds of survival. Don’t hesitate to see your doctor or nurse for a clinical breast exam (CBE) if you have a question about a change in your breasts.

Symptoms You Can See or Feel

• swelling or lump (mass) in the breast
• swelling in the armpit (lymph nodes)
• nipple discharge (clear or bloody)
• pain in the nipple
• inverted (retracted) nipple
• scaly or pitted skin on nipple
• persistent tenderness of the breast
• unusual breast pain or discomfort

Symptoms Seen On Breast Imaging

• Microcalcifications in tight clusters
• Dense mass with spiky (spiculated) outline

Some Symptoms of Advanced (Metastatic) Breast Cancer
Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage of this disease. Metastatic breast cancer is defined as having spread beyond the breast and underarm lymph nodes into other parts of the body.

• bone pain (bone metastases)
• shortness of breath (lung metastases)
• drop in appetite (liver metastases)
• unintentional weight loss (liver metastases)
• headaches, neurological pain or weakness (could be brain metastases)

Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) – Aggressive and Unusual Symptoms
One type of breast cancer that does not appear in lumps is called inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). This aggressive cancer grows in sheets instead of lumps, and it invades nearby skin, resembling a rash. It will not respond to topical creams or antibiotics, and should be treated very promptly. Symptoms:

• a sudden increase in mature breast size (as much as a cup size in a few days)
• itching in the skin of the breast that is continuous and not relieved by pills or creams
• a change in the breast skin color, resulting in pink, red, or dark-colored areas
• breast is excessively warm to the touch, or harder or firmer than usual
• unusual pain, which occurs out of the regular cycle
• sometimes a change in skin texture, similar to the skin of an orange
• breast skin ulcers (later stage IBC)

Symptoms of Breast Cancer Recurrence
Recurrence of breast cancer is classified as local, regional, and distant. A distant recurrence is the same as advanced (metastatic) breast cancer. A local recurrence is breast cancer that has returned after treatment, in or close to the original tumor location. It can often be effectively treated. Regional recurrence may be in the chest wall muscles, or in lymph nodes located beneath your sternum, just above your collarbones, and around your neck.

Local Recurrence Symptoms:

• a small lump or rash in the excision scar, on or under the skin

Regional Recurrence Symptoms:

• swollen lymph node in the same armpit where cancer was previously removed
• swollen lymph nodes above collarbones or sides of neck

A New Tumor Is Not a Recurrence
If a new tumor appears and has a different pathology than the original breast cancer, it is not considered a recurrence. It is called a new primary, and can occur in a different area of the breast that was originally affected, or in the opposite breast. A new cancer is diagnosed and treated independently from the original tumor. Source:

National Institutes of Health. Medline Plus. Breast Cancer. Symptoms.

By तरसे कोर्न्फोर्थ

Ovarian cancer is often called the "silent" killer because many times there are no symptoms until the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. One-third of American women will get some form of cancer in their lifetime and approximately one and one half percent of those cases will be cancer involving one or both ovaries.

Early symptoms of ovarian cancer are often mild, making this disease difficult to detect. Some early symptoms may include:

• An unusual feeling of fullness or discomfort in the pelvic region
• Unexplainable indigestion, gas, or bloating that is not relieved with over-the-counter antacids
• Pain during sexual intercourse
• Abnormal bleeding
• Swelling and pain of the abdomen

Most often these symptoms do not indicate ovarian cancer. However, if you experience them you should discuss them with your clinician.

Early detection of ovarian cancer offers a 90% cure rate. Sadly, a lack of symptoms from this silent disease means that about 75% of ovarian cancer cases will have spread to the abdomen by the time they are detected and, unfortunately, most patients die within five years.

Diagnosis...

Symptomless ovarian cancer is most often detected during a woman's regular gynecological examination. Your physician will palpitate your ovaries during your pelvic and rectal exam for the presence of ovarian cysts or fibroid tumors. If any abnormalities are noted, he will follow up with further testing which may include an ultrasound and chest X-ray. If further testing is required, a laparoscopy may be performed.

New methods for early screening of ovarian cancer are being investigated including ultrasound in conjunction with a blood test. The blood test may detect an antigen called CA 125 which has been detected in the blood of women with ovarian cancer.

These tests are useful in evaluating tumor growth, however neither of them has been proven as a reliable way to screen for ovarian cancer. Ultrasound can detect changes, but it does not give enough information alone to diagnose ovarian cancer. The CA 125 blood test can return positive results when no cancer is present due to other conditions a woman may experience including fibroid tumors, endometriosis, pelvic infection, pregnancy, or other non-gynecological problems.

Although these methods of screening for ovarian cancer look promising, further study is needed before either of these tests are routinely used to screen for ovarian cancer।
The treatment for ovarian cancer varies according to a number of factors. For most women, the first treatment is also a diagnostic procedure which involves surgery to determine the extent to which the disease has spread. As a result of surgery, the cancer will be staged.

Stages range from I to IV, with I being the earliest and IV being the most advanced stage. Treatment of ovarian cancer is based on the stage and grade of the disease. A pathologist will determine the grade (how likely it is to spread) of the malignancy.

Hysterectomy with salpingo- oophorectomy (removal the fallopian tubes and one or both ovaries) will most often follow a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Young women who still desire children and who have certain types of early ovarian cancer confined to one ovary may be able to have only the diseased ovary removed.

Chemotherapy or radiation will follow the hysterectomy based on individual cases.

Are You at Risk?

• An immediate (mother, sister, or daughter) family member who has had ovarian cancer increases your risk of developing this disease about three times, giving you a 5% to 7% risk of future ovarian cancer.
  
  
• When the cause is genetic, ovarian cancer usually shows up a decade earlier in each successive generation. (If your mother had ovarian cancer in her 60s, you stand a good chance that this disease will develop in you in your 50s.)
  
  
• Genetic counseling is a good idea for women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancers. Women with a family history may opt for oophorectomy, although this procedure does not offer absolute protection it does reduce risk by 75% to 90%
  
  
• Research has determined that women who use powders to dust their genital areas have a 60% higher risk of ovarian cancer. Feminine deodorant sprays can almost double your risk.
  
  
• Women who use oral contraceptives for at least five years reduce their chance of developing ovarian cancer by half for the short-term following use and possibly for lifetime. The longer you use the pill, the lower your risk.
  
  
• Having two or three children can cut your risk by as much as 30% over women who never conceive or give birth. Having five or more children reduces the risk up to 50%, and breastfeeding your children can further reduce your risk.
  
  
• Tubal ligation reduces a woman's risk up to 70%.

Remember, the best way to detect ovarian cancer is by regular pelvic examinations. See your gynecologist for a Pap smear (screens for cervical cancer only) and pelvic/rectal exam yearly or as your physician determines best for you.

Article source: http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/ovariancancer/a/ovarcansilkille_2.htm