Staging Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer Essay

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Cancer and Treatment

The identification and treatment of cancer as well as the care provided the patient are essential aspects of quality care nursing. Cancer is a complicated illness that progresses in stages and takes both a physiological and psychological toll on the patient. This paper will discuss the act of diagnosing cancer, the stages of cancer, complications that can arise, available treatments, and recommendations for addressing physiological and psychological side effects of care.

Diagnosing cancer is the first step in treatment. Diagnosing consists of performing laboratory tests of blood and urine along with imaging procedures, which take pictures of target areas within the body and allow the physician to see any tumors that are growing. Imaging processes such as CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, PET scans, nuclear scans, and x-rays are common practices and methods of diagnosing cancer. Performing a biopsy is another important step in the method of diagnosing whether a person has cancer. This is a process by which the physician takes a tissue sample from the patient for a pathologist to examine so as to see whether or not the cells under scrutiny are cancerous. The tissue can be taken using a number of tools, such as a needle, endoscope, or through surgical operation.

The staging of cancer can be determined by assessing the results of the lab tests, x-rays, scans, etc. Important to note is the fact that there is not one method or way of determining the stage of cancer, as there are several staging systems that can be used to describe the status of the cancer. The TNM staging system is a popular system used for various cancer types. Other staging systems are, however, used primarily for one type of cancer over another. Each system will tell where the cancer is located, the type of cells in the cancer, size, if it has spread, and the grade of the tumor (abnormality).

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TNM staging system describes the cancer using the letter T-N-M, where T stands for the size/extent of the primary tumor, N stands for the how many (if any) lymph nodes are affected by the cancer, and M stands for metastasized (if the cancer has spread throughout the body, it has metastasized). Numbers are used in conjunction with the letters; thus a stage described by the TNM system might appear in the following manners: T2N1MX, or T1N0M0. X is used when no measurement is possible. 0 is used when no tumor/cancer is detected. 1-3+ to describe the number of nodes affected, the size of the tumor, or whether it has metastasized.

Other ways to describe the staging of cancer are to use Stage 0 through Stage IV labels. Stage 0 describes the existence of cells which appear abnormal but are not currently spreading. Another descriptor for this stage is carcinoma in situ (CIS), which does not describe cancer per se, but does imply that it could develop into cancer at some point in the future, so it is necessary to monitor it overtime. Stages I through III describe a state in which cancer is present in the body with I describing a state of minimal spreading and III describing a state of greater spreading. Stage IV descriptor identifies a state in which the cancer has significantly spread throughout the whole of the body (National Cancer Institute, 2015).

Complications that can arise from cancer and cancer treatment include the effect of pain, loss of energy, loss of breath, nausea, weight loss, brain/nervous system dysfunction, abnormal reactions from the immune system, and the cancer spreading (Mayo Clinic, 2015). These complications do not necessarily occur together or at all, and some individuals experience worse side effects than….....

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