What is Chemotherapy and Radiation?
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To cure cancer - with some types of cancer, chemotherapy is likely to destroy all the cancer cells and cure the disease. \nTo reduce the chance of a cancer coming back - chemotherapy may be given after surgery or radiotherapy so that if any cancer cells remain, but are too small to see, they can be destroyed by the chemotherapy.\nTo shrink a cancer, reduce symptoms and prolong life - if a cure is not possible, chemotherapy may be given to shrink and control a cancer, or to reduce the number of cancer cells and try to reduce symptoms and prolong a good quality of life. This is known as palliative chemotherapy.Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells (including leukaemia and lymphoma). There are over 50 different chemotherapy drugs. Some are given on their own but often several drugs may be combined (this is known as combination chemotherapy).\n\nThe type of chemotherapy treatment you are given for your cancer depends on many things, particularly the type of cancer you have, where in the body it started, what the cancer cells look like under the microscope and whether they have spread to other parts of the body\nDifferent chemotherapy drugs cause different side effects, and some people may have very few. Cancer treatments cause different reactions in different people and any reaction can vary from treatment to treatment. It may be helpful to remember that almost all side effects are only short-term and will gradually disappear once the treatment has stopped.\n\nThe main areas of your body that may be affected by chemotherapy are those where normal cells rapidly divide and grow, such as the lining of your mouth, the digestive system, your skin, hair and bone marrow (the spongy material that fills the bones and produces new blood cells).\n\nIf you want to know more about the side effects that may be caused by your chemotherapy treatment you should ask your doctor or chemotherapy nurse, as they will know the exact drugs you are taking. Although the side effects of chemotherapy can be unpleasant, they need to be weighed against the benefits of the treatment. However, if you find that the treatment or its side effects are making you unwell, you should tell your doctor or chemotherapy nurse. You may be able to have medicines to help you, or changes can be made to your treatment to lessen any side effects.chemo can be given through a iv or by a pill most given in iv.i have had 12 months of chemo.and 6 weeks radation...Radiation therapy is one of the many tools used to combat cancers. Radiation treatments utilize high-energy waves such as x-rays to kill cancer cells. Radiation can be used alone or in conjunction with other treatments (e.g. chemotherapy and surgery) to cure or stabilize cancer. \n\nLike other therapies, the choice to use radiation to treat a particular cancer depends on a wide range of factors. These include, but are not limited to, the type of cancer, the physical state of the patient, the stage of the cancer, and the location of the tumor.therapy (or radiotherapy) is an important technique for shrinking tumors. High energy waves are targeted at the cancerous growth. The waves cause damage within the cells, disrupt cellular processes, prevent accurate cell division, and ultimately cause the cells to die. The death of the cells causes the tumor to shrink. One drawback of radiotherapy is that radiation is not specific to cancerous cells and may damage healthy cells as well.\n\nReactions of Normal and Cancerous Tissue to Therapy: \nThe response of tumors and normal tissues to radiation depends on their proliferative patterns before therapy starts and during treatment. Radiation kills cells through interactions with DNA and other target molecules. Death is not instantaneous, but occurs when the cells try to divide but fail-a process termed abortive mitosis. For this reason, radiation damage is manifest more quickly in tissues containing cells that are dividing rapidly \n\nNormal tissu
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The best way is surgery. When not possible, use combined chemoradiation.
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CANCER - Yes I can give lot of information but without knowing details from you it is difficult. I can only give general inforamtion. read -\n\nCancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. Metastasis is defined as the stage in which cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk tends to increase with age, due to the fact that DNA damage becomes more apparent in aging DNA. It is one of the principal causes of death in developed countries.\n\nThere are many types of cancer. Severity of symptoms depends on the site and character of the malignancy and whether there is metastasis. A definitive diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of tissue by a pathologist. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for the type of cancer pathology. Drugs that target specific cancers already exist for several cancers. If untreated, cancers may eventually cause illness and death, though this is not always the case.\n\nThe unregulated growth that characterizes cancer is caused by damage to DNA, resulting in mutations to genes that encode for proteins controlling cell division. Many mutation events may be required to transform a normal cell into a malignant cell. These mutations can be caused by chemicals or physical agents called carcinogens, by close exposure to radioactive materials, or by certain viruses that can insert their DNA into the human genome. Mutations occur spontaneously, and may be passed down from one generation to the next as a result of mutations within germ lines.\n\nMany forms of cancer are associated with exposure to environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, radiation, alcohol and certain viruses. While some of these risk factors can be avoided or reduced, there is no known way to entirely avoid the disease.\n\nif you require any specific information please post your question accoringly and there are persons like me to answer your qurries in details-.
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Stage 4 cancer is generally considered the final stage, though there are more and more people surviving stage 4.  Stage 4 also means that the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.  Chemo-therapy is the most popular form of treatment.  Sometimes radiation and surgery are incorporated into the treatment.  There is really no way to determine how long she will survive.  It depends a lot on her attitude and willingness to survive.  If there is a lot of pain that can't be controlled, she may want to let go simply because pain is so taxing on the person.  Bless you for your care and concern.  You are a reason for her to survive.
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Radiation therapy tends to kill the stem cells in the bone marrow, which can result in a weakned immune system and aplastic anemia (basically, your body doesn't produce enough red blood cells) since both red blood cells and immune cells are produced from stem cells in the bone marrow.  In some cases, this requires a bone marrow transplant, which, when sucessful, typically has minimal long-term consequences.\n\nRadiation can also weaken the bone itself.
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Usually death is caused by the body organs failing or shutting down.   This is caused by increased growth of the cancer cells that spread to other organs other than where the cancer is and and cause them not to function properly.  Sometimes this growing or spreading of cancer cells and be slowed down or stopped with medication called CHEMO or by radiation.  Other times CHEMO and radiation are not sucessful  and the disease gets worse and leads to death.
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Hi Karma.  Some of the other answers make valid points, but I believe this is the information you are looking for.\n\nRadiation can CAUSE cancer by several mechanisms.  One of the mechanisms is the production of high levels of 'oxidative stress'.  Oxidative stress can damage DNA, causing mutations than can contribute to the carcinogenesis process.\n\nRadiation TREATS cancer by the same mechanism - it causes oxidative stress.  Very high levels of oxidative stress in cancer cells (and healthy cells too, which is why the therapy is so toxic) induces biochemical pathways that lead to 'cell suicide' - a process called Apoptosis.\n\nIn summary, radiation can cause cancer by causing oxidative stress that damages DNA and leads to mutations.  Radiation can kill cancer cells by causing higher levels of oxidative stress that cause so much damage to the cell that the cell's 'suicide' mechanism (apoptosis) is activated and the cancer cell kills itself.  Unfortunately, this often fails as a cancer treatment because many cancer cells have mutations in their apoptotic pathways!\n\nHope this helps you understand this interesting 'paradox'.  \n\n(P.S. You asked a very good question!  It shows you are a 'thinker'!).
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Right, chemo and radio are both very harmfull to the body. people who have had them will tell u it's a thing they never want to endure again.\nIt's also very expensive and there are often limited resources so the sensible thing to do is to give it to the people who most need it. If only 10% will benefit, 90% will have unnessesary treatment which is not very ethical seeing as it can kill u.
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cancer is the big one, cancer cells are cells that just don't die, so they grow and reproduce take up valuable nutrients from healthy cells, crowd out healthy cells until the healthy cells die, and finally take over your body until it's systems shut down.
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hmm, there are lots of different options.\nI did a project on cancer radiation therapies with focus on the biological aspects of the efficacy of radiation (i.e. cell death).\nLast year i did a bionic eye presentation that had people who were blind from birth seeing black dots on a white field (but they didn't have depth perception).  It was fascinating - they had glasses hooked up to the patient and wires connected to a computer (worn on the belt) that further connected directly to the visual cortex of his brain via a cable "plugged" into his neck.\n\nWhat about nanotechnology for curing diseases in the blood?
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Not currently, however there are treatments and preventative measures. \n\nA cure means you will be completely absolved of the problem forever.  \n\nA treatment is a management. Like chemo can rid a person of cancer for awhile but there's still a chance it will come back. \n\nCancer happens on a cellular level so it's going to be a tough one to find a 'cure' for.  \n\n(Quoted)\nCancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy or other methods. The choice of therapy depends upon the location and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease, as well as the general state of the patient (performance status). A number of experimental cancer treatments are also under development.\n\nComplete removal of the cancer without damage to the rest of the body is the goal of treatment. Sometimes this can be accomplished by surgery, but the propensity of cancers to invade adjacent tissue or to spread to distant sites by microscopic metastasis often limits its effectiveness. The effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by toxicity to other tissues in the body. Radiation can also cause damage to normal tissue.\n\nBecause "cancer" refers to a class of diseases, it is unlikely that there will ever be a single "cure for cancer" any more than there will be a single treatment for all infectious diseases
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Cancer is a disease that happens when normal cells anywhere in the human body goes out of control and multiply and mutate, causing the suffer much pain  and suffering. Everyone is  potentially prone to cancer, some more than others. No one is totally immune.
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The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. At present, the treatment recommendations after surgery (adjuvant therapy) follow a pattern. This pattern may be adapted as every two years a worldwide conference takes place in St. Gallen, Switzerland to discuss the actual results of worldwide multi-center studies. Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases which follow different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include Radiation Therapy, Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy, and Immune Therapy.\n\nAn online resource for helping to quantify the relative risks and benefits of chemotherapy v. hormonal therapy is Adjuvant! Online (see below).\n\nThe emotional impact of cancer diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, and related issues can be severe. Most larger hospitals are associated with cancer support groups which can help patients cope with the many issues that come up in a supportive environment with other people with experience with similar issues.\n\nOnline cancer support groups are also very beneficial to cancer patients, especially in dealing with uncertainty and body-image problems inherent in cancer treatment.
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radiation causes the cells of the body to grow abnormally, the thing is, we can tolerate quite a bit of it before it damages us. \n\nhttp://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000026.htm
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Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (in which cancer cells are transported through the blood or lymphatic system). Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk increases with age. It is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.\n\nThere are many types of cancer. Severity of symptoms depends on the site and character of the malignancy and whether there is metastasis. A definitive diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of tissue by a pathologist. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for the type of cancer pathology. Drugs that target specific cancers already exist for many cancers. If untreated, cancers may eventually cause illness and death, though this is not always the case.\n\nThe unregulated growth that characterizes cancer is caused by damage to DNA, resulting in mutations to genes that encode for proteins controlling cell division. Many mutation events may be required to transform a normal cell into a malignant cell. These mutations can be caused by chemicals or physical agents called carcinogens, by close exposure to radioactive materials, or by certain viruses that can insert their DNA into the human genome. Mutations occur spontaneously, or are passed down generations as a result of germ line mutations.\n\nMany forms of cancer are associated with exposure to environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, radiation, alcohol and certain viruses. While some of these can be avoided, there is no known way to entirely avoid the disease, and public health and vaccination programs are also important on a global scale.\n\nLeukemia or leukaemia (see spelling differences) is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood cells, usually white blood cells (leukocytes). It is part of the broad group of diseases called hematological neoplasms.
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radiology is the study of radiation therapy\nradiation therapy is delivery of a therapeuticdose of radioactive substance
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To be honest, chemotherapy is not a cancer treatment.  Here is the situation.  Chemo can take care of the problem right away, but the doctor always says that, some can live an extended 2 years, or 3 years.  And some die right away from the chemicals.  This is with late stages of cancer.  Now, for early stages, it helps the problem but your health is deteriorated. They say that chemo affects the cancer and your normal body cells.  How many people you know, who have had late stages of cancer, and lived through it pass 5 yours with chemo therapy?  I bet you that you have never even heard of it.  Even if someone has, how many people is that compared to that masses?  The problem with other medicines is that the pharmaceautical companies cannot control that product.  What if it was tree bark say for instance.  How many people do you know will buy the pills if they can just walk up to any tree and bite a piece off to save themselves?  See?  So, USA doctors are familiar with these remedies, but they do not talk about it.  Try asking your doctor about green algae, or cesium chloride, or paw paw, etc etc.  Then they start to talk.  Otherwise, they wont say a word.  And if you dont know, how can you ask?  So, the doctors lips are sealed tight.  The individual doctors on the other hand are sometimes scared to talk about it.  It is because, if they open their mouths, they would be facing the whole medical community.  Alot of them go into the medical field to help people, and some go in it for money.  But, the top ranking ones in control are all in it for money.  If not, they would have never gotten their position.  I do not suggest you go with chemo therapy.  You can look up some alternative medicine to cancer and they are all over the place on the net.  The best ranked one is cesium chloride, paw paw, and along with others.  Some health websites even have a place where you can go and tell them your stage of cancer and which type of cancer, and they will sell you a package based on your individual problem.  There are also some doctors scattered all over the USA who specialize in cancer.  You never hear about them right?  Well, they wont be bothered by the medical community if they do a small operation without much advertising.  But, they all report about 90% survival rates on cancers that regular cancer doctors give up on.  And if that doctor didnt give up, do you expect to live anyways?  No.  I speak out to you because I dont want you to die like the two of my friends who have already died.  Certain doctors even said that they could cure it with 80% survival rate.  But, I didnt have the money to help them.  So, I am speaking out in hopes that nothing happens to you and you survive.  Regardless of your stage of cancer.  Cesium chloride is what works best.  Look it up, its everywhere.  Even oxygen drops help.  You can use them both at the same time.  The thing is with these alternatives is that, some of them make you feel extremely bad at the beginning, but after a while you get used to it, and then you are gone with the cancer before you know it.  So dont feel discouraged.  Oxygen drops keep cancer from growing because your body can live with more oxygen.  As a matter of fact, it helps circulate your blood.  Cancer cannot live at the sight of oxygen.  It has been said that not enough oxygen is what causes cancer. I dont know what the cause is, because there are many causes.  But, cesium chloride and oxygen drops will take care of it.  And one more thing, some of these remedies cannot be sold as a cancer treatment.  So, they are sold as vitamins.  But, in their website, they are allowed to say what it cures.  But, their labels cannot say a word about cancer.  So, you should start in the vitamin section of the internet.  Good luck my friend.