Education
The most formidable weapon
against cancer is education. Knowing your risks and improving areas
you can control, along with early detection, is the key to cancer
survival. With survival rates approaching 50 percent, we must continue
to stress the role education plays in the fight against cancer. Some
general information is included here and more is available at the Community
Cancer Center, OSF St. Joseph Center for Healthy Lifestyles
and from your physician.
Breast
Cancer
Mammography services are available at
OSF St. Joseph Medical Center. Mammography is a low dose x-ray of the
breast, producing sharp, clear images which can reveal small tumors up
to two years before they can be felt by physical examination. That's
important because survival rates increase with early detection of
tumors.
How important is early
detection? You decide.
 |
Average-size lump
found by mammogram |
| Average-size lump found by
doctor's examination |
Average-size lump found by
woman who examines her
breasts each month |
Average-size lump found by
woman who doesn't
examine her breasts each month |
|
The
size of the lumps pictured here may vary according to the
screen
resolution of your computer monitor. |
The American Cancer Society
recommends a three-prong approach: breast self exam, professional
exams and mammograms. All women age 20 and over should perform breast
self exam monthly and see a health care professional yearly for an
exam. Women age 40 to 49 should add a mammogram every one to two
years, depending on their health history, and women age 50 and over
should schedule a mammogram every year. Your physician may suggest a
mammogram earlier and/or more often if you are at high risk.
Prostate
The cause of prostate cancer is unknown. It is known, however, that
the growth of cancer cells in the prostate, like that of normal cells,
is stimulated by male hormones, especially testosterone.
The speed at which cancer grows
in the prostate varies from man to man. In some men, the cancer grows
slowly; in others, more rapidly. The risk of developing prostate
cancer increases with age, and it seldom occurs in men before the age
of 50.
When a cancerous prostate tumor
is small and located only within the prostate, the cancer often is not
found. It may not cause any symptoms and may be too small for a doctor
to feel during a routine prostate examination. A doctor performs this
examination by inserting a finger into the rectum to feel the size and
shape of the prostate.
A man may live for many years
without ever having the cancer discovered. As the cancer grows,
however, the prostate eventually squeezes the urethra, which it
surrounds (see illustration below). Then, symptoms may develop such as
difficulty in urinating, usually the first symptom of prostate cancer.
(Because the some symptom can be caused by a non-cancerous condition
of the prostate, it does not always mean that prostate cancer is
present.)
With or without symptoms, a
growing cancer can also begin to attack cells close to the prostate.
At the same time, cells can break off from the cancer and spread to
other parts of the body. The sites to which prostate cancer tends to
spread are lymph nodes, the lungs, and various bones, especially bones
around the hip and lower back.
Like the main prostate tumor,
the tumors which have spread to other areas of the body expand and
squeeze other body parts. When prostate cancer spreads, the most
common symptom is bone pain.
In order to determine the size
and extent of the spread, or stage, of your prostate cancer, your
doctor will perform tests that involve seeing internal parts of the
body, measuring the levels of substances in the blood, and examining
samples of prostate cells.
(Source: Mediconsult.com
Limited)
Skin Cancer
http://www.cancer.org
Melanoma: The price of
beauty?
If you believe a tan is beautiful and a sunburn is just a painful
inconvenience, take note: This year, 40,300 Americans will hear,
"You have malignant melanoma." And 7,300 Americans will die.
Not pretty. More than inconvenient.
Too much exposure to the
sunespecially during childhoodmay increase your risk of melanoma.
The danger signs for melanoma are as simple as A-B-C-D:
