Tag: CancerForward Expert Article
Best Options for Prostate Surgery: Traditional versus Robot-Assisted Procedures
A diagnosis of prostate cancer that hasn’t spread comes with treatment options such as watchful waiting, hormone therapy, and radiation. But if your doctor recommends prostate removal, you have one very important decision: trust your surgery to human hands or to robotic arms controlled by your surgeon. A study led by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts…
Acupuncture for the Cancer Survivor
In the last two decades, many cancer survivors have resorted to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which includes natural products, mind-body medicine, manipulative and body-based practices. According to the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, acupuncture is considered a form of mind-body medicine. A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report indicated that more than 8…
Skin Care For People Living With Cancer
As a result of advances made over the last several decades by scientists and oncologists, more and more people are living with cancer. Yet despite recent, remarkable medical discoveries, an important aspect of patient care has been overlooked, even though it centers on the most visible human organ: the skin. For obvious reasons, the skin,…
Cancer Survivorship Issues Faced by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community
Once diagnosed with cancer, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) community face some unique challenges. First, they have to decide whether it is safe to come out to their oncologist and treatment team. Even those people who are generally comfortable revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity may be more guarded and…
Living Through – A Spiritual Guide Through Cancer
I suppose I have recited Psalm 23 publicly at religious services more times than I can count, but in the private times of trial and tribulation, when I needed the comfort of the Holy One, I have turned to it as well. Allow me a preface, and then I will return to the Psalm itself.For…
Surviving Cancer: Physical Realities
Cardiorespiratory (CR) fitness, also called aerobic capacity, is one of the most important indicators of health and longevity in humans. CR fitness refers to the body’s ability to transport oxygen from the air to the body’s cells in order to produce energy for a multitude of processes (e.g., muscle contraction, immune system function). The integrity…
Being Sun Smart: What You Should Know About Skin Cancer
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, accounting for more cases than all other cancers combined. More than one million cases are diagnosed each year and approximately 50% of Americans who live to 65 will have at least one skin cancer. Learning the characteristics of skin cancer is essential…
Reducing Prostate Cancer Risk: Good News, Bad News, or No New News?
Prostate cancer is an important disease; in fact, it’s the most common internal malignancy in American men. Prostate cancer is a variable disease; many cases are slow growing, even harmless, but some cases are aggressive and even lethal. And it’s a puzzling disease; some cases are passed down from father to son, but most occur…
Radiation Fibrosis Syndrome: What It Is and How to Treat It
Radiation therapy, like surgery and chemotherapy, is a mainstay of cancer treatment. The reason radiation is used to treat cancer is that it is usually toxic to the fast growing cancer cells while supposedly having little adverse effects on the slow growing and relatively radiation resistant normal body cells. Unfortunately, normal cells are often affected…
Psychological Challenges of Surviving Cancer
About 11 million Americans alive today — one in 30 people — are either currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past. The National Cancer Institute considers all to be cancer survivors. Many would attest that cancer is not only life-threatening, but also life-altering.Cancer and its treatment sometimes leave scars and…