Neoplastic Diseases

Neoplastic Diseases – General Information

Neoplasia refers to “new growth” and these growths are known as tumors. Not all of the tumors are serious threats to a person’s health, such tumors are known as benign, but there are also life-threatening tumors which are called malignant. The Neoplastic Diseases are the abnormal swelling of the flesh. Some of the causes of these disorders are known, but there are many which have not been completely understood yet. Some of the causes of the appearance and development of these medical conditions are viruses, parasites, irradiation such as the sunlight and x-rays, hormones, some of the chemicals and the genetic predisposition is also an important factor of these diseases. Some of the other forms of swelling are part of the normal functions of the organism and can or cannot be considered to be causes of the Neoplastic Diseases (such as: the enlargement of the uterus in pregnancy and the enlargement of the penis in erection). Because the neoplasia includes many different diseases it is very difficult to find a definition which describes them all.

The benign neoplasms are the leimyoma (meaning the fibroids of the uterus) and melanocytic nevi (meaning the skin moles) which do not develop intro cancer. The pre-cancerous neoplasms include the carcinoma in situ (this is a form of carcinoma which can be defines as the absence of invasion of the surrounding tissues) which if it is not treated will evolve into cancer. The malignant Neoplastic Diseases also known as cancers invade and destroy the surrounding tissues causing metastases followed by death.

Neoplastic Diseases – Symptoms

It is well known the fact that any medical disorder (including the Neoplastic Diseases) can trigger a variety of symptoms. Therefore, some of this medical condition's most uncommon symptoms have not been listed (mentioned) here. This is why we strongly recommend you to contact your personal health care provider whenever you develop any unusual, bothersome or unpleasant symptoms. Your personal physician will be able to tell you if you are suffering from Neoplastic Diseases or from any other medical disorder. Here is a list of the most common symptoms that a person who suffers from Neoplastic Diseases, may experience, although each individual experiences them differently.

The local symptoms of this medical condition include: unusual lumps or swelling, hemorrhage (also known as bleeding), pain and ulceration. By compressing the surrounding areas can lead to jaundice, meaning the yellowing of the skin. In the cases that this medical condition reaches the stage of metastasis, the patients will experience the following symptoms: enlarged lymph nodes, cough, hepatomegaly (meaning the enlargement of the liver), bone pain and even fractures of the bones, neurological symptoms and pain. The systemic symptoms usually appear after the development of metastasis and include: weight loss, poor appetite, fatigue, cachexia (also known as wasting) and also the specific paraneoplastic phenomena (such as: hypercalcaemia, granulocytosis, opsoclonus – this refers to the movements of the eye). If a person experiences the symptoms above she should go and see the doctor or personal health care provider, because it is not necessary for her to have cancer, as the symptoms listed above can be caused by numerous medical conditions.

Neoplastic Diseases – Treatment

The majority of the Neoplastic Diseases are recognized by the signs and symptoms which are obvious on the screening, but this cannot lead to the establishment of a diagnostic, as the signs which appear through a screening need to be seen by a pathologist (this a physician specialized in the diagnosis of the cancer and many other medical conditions). The people in whom cancer is suspected are submitted to a series of medical tests which in the majority of the cases include blood tests, CT scans, endoscopy and X-rays. The Neoplastic Diseases may be suspected for a huge number of reasons but the final diagnostic is established only after a histological examination has been made by a pathologist. The tissue which needs to be examined may be obtained during a surgery or a biopsy. The diagnosis which the pathologist will give is based on the type of the cell which is proliferating, on its histological grade and also on other characteristics of the tumor. This information is very useful for the doctor to evaluate the prognosis of the patients and also to establish the best treatment.

The Neoplastic Diseases may be treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy, surgery and other methods. The choice of the treatment depends on the location of the cancer and the grade of the tumor, but also on the stage of the disease and the general state of the patients. The goal of the treatment is to completely remove the cancer without damaging the rest of the body and this can be obtained by surgery, but the effectiveness of the surgery is limited by the propensity of all the types of cancer to invade the nearby tissues and to quickly spread all over the body. The effectiveness of the chemotherapy may also be limited, because it may be toxic to the normal tissues and the body, this is also truth in the radiation therapy which can damage the healthy tissues from the body.

Chemotherapy means treating the cancer with drugs which are able to destroy the cancerous cells. These drugs interfere in the cell division in many ways for example in the duplication of the DNA. Radiation therapy (also known as radiotherapy, X-ray therapy and irradiation) means the use of the ionizing radiation in order to destroy the cancerous cells and to shrink the tumors. This therapy may be administered externally through external beam radiotherapy and internally through brachytherapy. The targeted therapies for the Neoplastic Diseases include monoclonal antibody therapies and photodynamic therapy (also abbreviated PDT) and are useful in removing the traces of the malignant tissues. Surgery is usually used in non-hematological cancers to remove it completely. When the cancer reaches the stage of metastasis the complete removal of the cancer is impossible. The surgical procedures which are used in the patients who are suffering from Neoplastic Diseases include: mastectomy (this is used in the breast cancer) and prostatectomy (this is used in the prostate cancer). The bad part is that even one single remaining cell can lead to the re-apparition of the tumor.