Oncology is a branch of medicine which deals with the study of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tumors which may be benign and malignant. Bhatia hospital is one of the best oncology hospitals in Mumbai where you will get the latest cancer treatments by chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery as per requirement.
There are different types of cancers:
- Carcinoma: This kind of cancer begins in tissues covering internal organ or skin. Epithelial, squamous, basal cell carcinoma, melanoma, papilloma and adenoma are types of carcinoma.
- Sarcoma: This kind of cancer begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle and connective tissue. Osteosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, liposarcoma, angiosarcoma, rhabdosarcoma, and fibrosarcoma are types of sarcoma.
- Leukemia: This kind of cancer starts in blood forming cells like bone marrow. Lymphoblastic leukemia, myelogenous leukemia, T-cell leukemia, and hairy-cell leukemia are some examples.
- Lymphoma and myeloma: Lymphoma is cancer of lymphocytes and myeloma is cancer of plasma cells.
- CNS cancer: This kind of cancer begins in brain or spinal cord. Glioma, meningioma, pituitary adenoma are the example of central nervous system cancers.
Cancer can be prevented by doing the folowing:
- Avoid tobacco consumption
- Maintain healthy diet
- Be physically active
- Protect skin from strong sun rays
- Immunize regularly
- Protect by sterilization process, don’t share needles and practice safe sex
Diagnosis of cancer: Screening of cancer is necessary to diagnose
- Laboratory test: Lab test of blood, urine or other body fluid for diagnosis. Abnormal levels of tests are suggestive signs which has to correlate clinically.
- Imaging procedure: Picture of area to be diagnosed by various ways like
- X-Ray
- CT Scan
- MRI
- Ultrasound
- Nuclear Scan
- PET Scan
- Biopsy: Removal of sample tissues to diagnose cancer. Biopsy can be done with needle, endoscope and surgery.
Staging of cancer: Staging of cancer is described by TNM
- T (Tumor): T describes size and location of tumor. It is numbered from 0 to 4.
- N (Node): It describes whether cancer is found in lymph node. It is numbered 0 to 3.
- M (Metastasis): M indicates whether cancer has spread or not. If it metastasized then denotes as M1 otherwise M0.
Treatment: There are many types of cancer treatments. Treatments depend upon the types of cancer and its stage. Treatments can be stand alone or in combination.
- Surgery
- Chemotherapy
- Radiotherapy
- Hormone therapy
- Stem cell transplant
- Immunotherapy
- Targeted therapy
