Oncology

The field of oncology has three main divisions-medical, surgical, and radiation.

The term ‘oncology’ means a branch of science that deals with tumors and cancers. The word “onco” means bulk, mass, or tumor while “-logy” means study. Oncology deals with cancers.

Oncologists are general surgeons with specialty training in procedures for diagnosing, staging (determining the stage of cancer), or removing cancerous growths. They can perform biopsies and surgeries to remove a cancerous growth.

Leukemia is a type of cancer that affects your blood cells and bone marrow. As with other types of cancer, there’s currently no cure for leukemia. People with leukemia sometimes experience remission, a state after diagnosis and treatment in which the cancer is no longer detected in the body

There are three main types of tumor:

• Benign: These are not cancerous.
• Premalignant: In these tumors, the cells are not yet cancerous, but they have the potential to become malignant.
• Malignant: Malignant tumors are cancerous

Both differ in the kind of approach followed by them. Medical oncologists use chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, or immunotherapy. A radiation oncologist will treat your cancer with radiation therapy. A surgical oncologist uses surgery to remove tumors.

When a patient comes in for the first consultation, the oncologist conducts a thorough examination. This includes blood tests, MRI, CT Scan, etc

There isn’t a specific period. Some tumors grow fast, whereas others grow slowly.

Chemotherapy drugs cause considerable damage to all cells. This leads to severe side effects including nausea, hair loss, and immunosuppression. For that reason, chemo is considered toxic.

Some common cancers may be affected by what we eat are lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer.

• Breast Cancer
• Endometrial Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Kidney Cancer
• Colon Cancer
• Esophageal Cancer

Radiation therapy involves giving high doses of radiation beams directly into a tumor. It is better than chemotherapy because it targets a specific area of the body.

• Cataracts.
• Hair loss.
• Hearing loss.
• Memory loss

Benign tumors can grow but do not spread. There is no way to tell from symptoms alone if a tumor is benign or malignant. Often an MRI scan can reveal the tumor type, but in many cases, a biopsy is required.