What is this condition?

Postmenopausal bleeding is defined as bleeding from the reproductive tract that occurs 1 year or more after menstrual periods stop. Sites of bleeding include the vulva, vagina, cervix, and endometrium. Prognosis varies with the cause.
What causes it?

Postmenopausal bleeding may result from:

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estrogen therapy – when excessive amounts are given or when small amounts are given in the presence of a hypersensitive endometrium.
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internal estrogen production – especially when levels are high, as in persons with estrogen-producing ovarian tumors; however, in some persons, even slight fluctuation in estrogen levels may cause bleeding.
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atrophic endometrium – due to low estrogen levels.
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atrophic vaginitis – usually triggered by trauma during intercourse when estrogen is lacking.
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aging- which weakens blood vessels, produces degenerative tissue changes, and decreases resistance to infections.
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adenomatous hyperplasia or atypical adenomatous hyperplasia­ usually considered a premalignant lesion.

What are its symptoms?

Vaginal bleeding, the predominant symptom, ranges from spotting to outright hemorrhage; its duration also varies. Other symptoms depend on the cause. Excessive estrogen stimulation, for example, may also produce copious cervical mucus; estrogen deficiency may cause the vaginal mucosa to shrink.
How is it diagnosed?

The doctor will perform a physical exam (including a pelvic exam), obtain a detailed history, and order standard lab tests (such as complete blood count) and a cytologic exam of tissue specimens from the cervix and the endocervical canal. An endometrial biopsy or dilation and curettage reveals evidence of disease in the endometrium.

Diagnosis must rule out any underlying disease. For instance, evidence of elevated levels of endogenous estrogen may suggest an ovarian tumor. Before testing for estrogen levels, the woman must stop all sources of estrogen intake – including face and body creams that contain estrogen – to rule out excessive estrogen as a cause.
How is it treated?

Emergency treatment to control massive bleeding is rarely necessary, except in advanced cancer. Treatment may include dilation and curettage to relieve bleeding. Other therapy varies according to the underlying cause. Estrogen creams and suppositories are usually effective in correcting estrogen deficiency because they’re rapidly absorbed. Hysterectomy is indicated for repeated episodes of postmenopausal bleeding from the endometrial cavity. Such bleeding may indicate endometrial cancer.

Gonorrhea

Guillain Barre Syndrome

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Herpangina

Herpes Zoster

Hookworm Disease

Inclusion Conjunctivitis

Influenza

Labyrinthitis

Lassa Fever

Leprosy

Listeriosis

Liver Abscess

Lung Abscess

Lyme Disease

Malaria

Mastoiditis

Meningitis

Meningococcal Infections

Microsporidiosis

Molluscum Contagiosum

Mononucleosis

MRSA Infection

Mucormycosis

Mumps

Myelitis

Myocarditis

Myringitis

Nonviral Hepatitis

Pancreatitis

Rabies

Reiters Syndrome

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Scabies

Scarlet Fever

Schistosomiasis

Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome

Strongyloidiasis

Taeniasis

Toxic Shock Syndrome

Tuberculosis

Viral Hepatitis

Tagged under:estrogen production, low estrogen levels, menstrual periods, tissue changes, tissue specimens vaginal mucosa

What is this Condition?

Lung cancer usually develops within the wall or lining of the bronchial tree, the system of branching air passages within the lungs. Some people have survived for 5 years or more with diagnosed lung cancer; however, the general prognosis is poor. Although it is largely preventable, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in men and is fast becoming the most common cause in women.

What Causes it?

Medical experts agree that lung cancer is caused by inhalation of carcinogenic pollutants. Pollutants in tobacco smoke cause progressive damage to lung cells.

Who is most susceptible to lung cancer? Any smoker over age 40, especially if he or she began to smoke before age 15, has smoked a whole pack or more per day for 20 years, or works with or near asbestos.

What are its Symptoms?

Because lung cancer rarely causes symptoms in its early stage, this disease is often advanced at diagnosis. Late-stage respiratory symptoms typically include “smoker’s cough,” hoarseness, wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing up blood, chest pain, fever, weakness, weight loss, appetite loss, and shoulder pain.

Lung cancer may spread to any part of the body, most commonly to the brain and spinal cord, liver, and bone. The effects of cancer spread vary greatly depending on tumor size and location.

Hormonal Effects

Lung tumors may alter the production of hormones that regulate body functions. Possible problems include:

• breast enlargement in males

• bone and joint pain from cartilage erosion due to abnormal production of growth hormone

• Cushing’s syndrome (overproduction of certain steroid hormones) and carcinoid syndrome (diarrhea, cramps, flushing, skin lesions, labored breathing)

• increased calcium levels in the blood.

How is it Diagnosed?

The person’s symptoms and physical exam findings may strongly suggest lung cancer, but firm diagnosis requires further evidence.

• Chest X-ray usually shows an advanced tumor, but it can detect a tumor up to 2 years before symptoms appear. It also indicates tumor size and location.

• Sputum cytology (the analysis of cells in the sputum), which is 75% reliable, requires a specimen coughed up from the lungs.

• Computed tomography scan (commonly called a CAT scan) of the chest may help determine the tumor’s size and whether it affects surrounding structures.

• Bronchoscopy (visual exam of the lungs using an instrument called a bronchoscope) can locate the tumor site. Specimens taken during this test provide material for cell and tissue analysis.

• Needle biopsy of the lungs can detect tumors in the outer portion of the lungs. This procedure allows firm diagnosis in 80% of people with lung cancer.

• Tissue biopsy (removal and analysis of affected tissue) can be done if the site of cancer spread is accessible.

• Thoracentesis (draining of fluid from the chest) allows chemical and cell analysis of pleural fluid.

Other tests to detect cancer spread include bone scan, bone marrow biopsy (removal of some bone marrow for analysis), and CAT scan of the brain or abdomen.

Also, the doctor will stage the tumor to determine the extent of the disease, help plan treatment, and make a prognosis.

How is it Treated?

Treatment – which consists of combinations of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy – may improve the prognosis and prolong survival.

Surgery may be performed for certain types of lung cancer. It may include partial or total removal of the lung.

Before surgery, the person may undergo radiation therapy to help reduce the tumor’s size. Chemotherapy before radiation helps improve the person’s response to radiation. Chemotherapy may involve combinations of certain drugs.

Radiation therapy may also be performed after surgery. Generally, radiation therapy is delayed until 1 month after surgery to let the wound heal. Then, radiation is directed at the part of the chest where the tumor is most likely to spread.

Radiation treatments may be the main form of treatment when surgery is not possible. Radiation implants are another possible treatment.

In laser therapy, still largely experimental, a laser beam is directed through a bronchoscope to destroy local tumors.

What can a Person with Lung Cancer do?

If you’re receiving chemotherapy and radiation, take the following steps:

• Eat soft, nonirritating foods that are high in protein. To maintain proper nutrition, eat high-calorie snacks between meals.

• To conserve your energy, alternate activity with rest periods .

• If you’re receiving outpatient radiation therapy, avoid tight clothing, sun exposure, and harsh ointments on your chest. As instructed, perform exercises to help prevent shoulder stiffness.

Tagged under:cancer, carcinoid syndrome, chest x ray, coughing up blood, diagnosis, hormonal effects, hormones, lung cancer, lung cells, lung tumors skin lesions

What is this Condition?

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Although it may develop any time after puberty, it most often arises after age 50. It occurs in men, but rarely.

The survival rate has improved because of earlier diagnosis and the variety of treatments now available. Bur the death rate hasn’t changed in the past 50 years. Breast cancer is the number two killer (after lung cancer) of women ages 35 to 54.

Breast cancer occurs more often in the left breast than the right, and more often in the upper outer quadrant (the upper part of the breast closest to the arm). A woman may not be able to feel a slow­growing breast tumor by touch for up to 8 years, until it has a 3/8-inch (1-centimeter) diameter.

Breast cancer may spread by way of the lymphatic system and bloodstream, through the right side of the heart to the lungs, and eventually to the other breast, chest wall, liver, bone, and brain.

What Causes it?

The cause of breast cancer isn’t known, but its high incidence in women suggests that estrogen is a cause or contributing factor. Certain predisposing factors are clear, though. Women at high risk include those who:

• have a family history of breast cancer
• have long menstrual cycles (began menstruating early or experienced menopause late)
• have never been pregnant
• were first pregnant after age 31
• have had cancer in one breast
• have had endometrial or ovarian cancer
• were exposed to low-level ionizing radiation.

Researchers have looked into many other possible predisposing factors, including estrogen therapy, drugs that lower blood pressure, a high-fat diet, obesity, and fibrocystic breasts.

Women at lower risk for breast cancer include those who:

• were pregnant before age 20
• have had more than one pregnancy
• are Indian or Asian.

What are its Symptoms?

Warning signs of possible breast cancer include:

• a lump or mass in the breast
• change in the symmetry or size of the breast
• change in the skin, such as thickening or dimpling, scaly skin around the nipple, an orange-peel-like appearance, or ulcers
• change in skin temperature (a warm, hot, or pink area)
• unusual drainage or discharge from the breast
• change in the nipple, such as itching, burning, erosion, or retraction
• pain (with an advanced tumor)
• spread of cancer to the bone, pathologic bone fractures, and increased calcium in the blood
• swelling of the arm.

How is it Diagnosed?

The most reliable way to detect breast cancer is by a monthly self­exam, with immediate evaluation of any abnormality. Other tests include mammography (an X-ray of the breast) and biopsy (removal of breast tissue).

Mammography is indicated for a woman with signs or symptoms of breast cancer. Every woman should have a baseline (initial) mammogram between ages 35 and 39. Women ages 40 to 49 should have one every 1 to 2 years; women over age 50, women who have a family history of breast cancer, or those who’ve had cancer in one breast should have a mammogram every year.

Because mammography can produce a false-negative result in as many as 30% of all tests, most doctors do a fine-needle aspiration or surgical biopsy if the woman has a suspicious mass, even if the mammogram is negative. Ultrasound, which can distinguish a fluid-filled cyst from a tumor, can be used instead of an invasive surgical biopsy.

Bone scans, a computed tomography scan (commonly called a CAT scan), measurement of a substance called alkaline phosphatase, liver function studies, and a liver biopsy can detect the spread of cancer to distant sites.

A test called a hormonal receptor assay is done to determine if the tumor is estrogen- or progesterone-dependent. This test guides decisions to use therapy that blocks the action of the estrogen hormone, which supports tumor growth.

How is it Treated?

Much controversy exists over breast cancer treatments. In choosing therapy, the woman and her doctor should consider the stage of the disease, the woman’s age and menopausal status, and the possible disfiguring effects of surgery.

A woman with breast cancer may undergo one or any combination of the following treatments:

• Surgery involves either lumpectomy or mastectomy (removal of all or part of the breast).
• Chemotherapy is used either as the main treatment or as an auxiliary to the main treatment (known as adjuvant therapy), depending on such factors as the tumor stage and estrogen receptor status. The most commonly used drugs are cyclophosphamide, fluorouracil methotrexate, doxorubicin, vincristine, paclitaxel, and prednisone.
• A treatment called peripheral stem cell therapy may be used for a woman with advanced breast cancer. In this treatment, blood is removed from a large vein. Certain cells undergo purification and are frozen and eventually reinfused.
• Primary radiation therapy before or after tumor removal is effective for small tumors in early stages that haven’t spread to distant sites. It’s also used to prevent or treat local recurrence. Also, a woman with inflammatory breast cancer may undergo radiation before surgery to make the tumor easier to remove.

Tagged under:breasts women, cancer, cancer in women, cause of breast cancer, left breast, lower blood pressure, lung cancer ovarian cancer

Bone Tumor – How to Cope up with Bone Tumor?

What do doctors call this condition?

Sarcoma of the bone, bone cancer, primary malignant bone tumor

What is this condition?

Most bone tumors are caused by the spread of cancer from another part of the body (secondary tumors).

Tumors that originate in the bones themselves (primary tumors) are rare, accounting for less than 1 % of all malignant tumors. Primary tumors are more common in young males, but may affect individuals between ages 35 and 60 as well.

What causes it?

The causes of a primary malignant bone tumor are unknown. Some researchers suspect that the tumor arises in areas of rapid body growth because children and young adults with such tumors seem to be much taller than average. Additional theories point to heredity, trauma, and excessive radiation therapy.

What are its symptoms?

Bone pain is the most common symptom of a primary malignant bone tumor. Often more intense at night, the pain isn’t usually associated with movement. It’s dull and usually localized, although it may be referred from the hip or spine and result in weakness or a limp.

Another common sign is a mass or tumor. The tumor site may be tender and swollen; the tumor itself often can be felt. Fractures are common. In late stages, the person may have a fever, impaired mobility, and physical wasting and malnutrition.

How is it diagnosed?

A biopsy is essential for confirming a primary malignant bone tumor. Bone X-rays, radioisotope bone scans, and CAT scans show tumor size.

How is it treated?

Surgical removal of the tumor is the preferred treatment. This may be combined with preoperative chemotherapy using drugs such as doxorubicin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, cisplatin, and dacarbazine administered through the arteries to the long bones of the legs. In some instances, radical surgery such as amputation is necessary.

Tagged under:bone bone, bone cancer, bone pain, bone scans, bone tumors, cancer, cisplatin, doxorubicin, excessive radiation, malignant bone tumor, malignant tumors, preoperative chemotherapy, secondary tumors, Uncategorized vincristine