Oncology is considered to be that branch of medicine dealing with cancer management and Oncologists are those medical specialists who provide treatment to patients. Dr Sewanti limaye is a famous Medical Oncologist who can provide proper treatment to patients as and when required.
About oncology
There are three major aspects that are an absolute necessity to ensure improvement in the patient’s overall health and their chances to survive. The three aspects are given below:
- Treatment: It is upon determining the type and extent of spread of cancer and the areas where it has occurred, treatment is provided.
- Diagnosis: Cancer is screened by using staging and tests.
- Prevention: It helps to identify the major risk factors like alcohol and tobacco and works towards reducing their intake.
Causes of cancer
Specific cause has still been identified for the disease to take place, thus making it all the more potent. However, certain risk factors can be noticed. By avoiding such factors can help reduce the chances of anyone contracting this dreadful disease. Few common risk factors:
- Lifestyle choices like alcohol and cigarette smoking does increase the risk.
- Tobacco is regarded to be the major cause for cancer related deaths. Over 20% of people spread across the globe are found to die due to tobacco intake.
- There are present in the environment numerous cancer causing substances. It is also found in water and air and hence, it becomes difficult for people to avoid them completely. Few examples are cadmium, benzene, asbestos, arsenic, etc.
- Old people are found to be more prone to contracting cancer as this disease is found to take several years to fully develop and be diagnosed. It might perhaps be present within the person’s body for a very long time only to be diagnosed after developing completely at a much later stage.
- Obesity: This is related directly to cancer of rectum, colon, breast, pancreas, kidney, esophagus, endometrium and other parts of the body.
Treatment offered
Fortunately medical science has managed to provide cancer patients with different forms of treatments. It includes medical oncology surgery and radiation therapy. When chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy is used for treatment purpose, it is stated as medical oncology.
- Immunotherapy: Natural immune system of the body in case of immunotherapy gets boosted to combat cancer. Substances that are used for combating purpose are usually prepared by the body or specially within a lab setting. They tend to work by preventing affected cell’s further development thereby ensuring better functioning of the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Genetically modified viruses get used for destruction of cancer cells in case of Oncolytic virus therapy. The tumor is injected with the virus, which copies further itself, thereby causing bursting of the cells and its subsequent death. The other method is T-cell therapy where from the blood is eliminated T-cells and later altered within the lab setting. Then, these are inserted in the human body to destroy the cancer cells.
- Targeted therapy: Although different from chemotherapy, it works by providing the patient with drugs. Here, specific, proteins and genes get targeted for preventing further development and spread of cancer cells. This method is used often along with various options including chemotherapy. The drug provided is known to have the ability to block signals providing information to the tumor cells to grow and then divide. This is achieved by using two different types. The exact target which gets affected around or in the cancer area is blocked by the drug, in case of Monoclonal antibodies. Again, in small molecule drugs, process which provides the necessary boost to the cancer cells to spread and multiply gets blocked. It is a wonderful therapy to treat lung, colorectal and breast cancer.
- Chemotherapy: Drugs are used for destroying the affected cells. Combination of variety of drugs or a single one is prescribed by the expert to prevent the cancer cells from developing and dividing further. But being a powerful drug, it does have the ability to destroy normal healthy cells that surround the affected region. When used for shrinking size of tumor prior to surgery, it is referred to as neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
To get the best treatment, patients should consult the top specialists in the domain like Dr Sewanti limaye – Medical Oncologist