Effective Care for Cancer Patients Across the Life Span

Effective Care for Cancer Patients Across the Life Span
Cancer has gradually become a significant healthcare burden across the globe. DeVita et al. (2019) indicate that scientists have concluded that this disease is genetic and that its progression arises from continued molecular alterations in the somatic cell’s genome. As a result, this aspect makes cancer an unpredictable disease that can affect any part of the human body because the cancerous cells can percolate all biological elements. The complicated nature of this condition has made its prevention and treatment even more sophisticated, making the disease a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. American Cancer Society (2018) supports this observation and underscores the disease’s burden on the healthcare system and the patient’s lives. Although healthcare providers have found it challenging to care for and treat cancer patients, DeVita et al. (2019) indicate that effective screening, consistent pharmacological, and surgery developments have significantly improved the quality of outcomes. In this context, exploring the diagnosis and staging, cancer-related complications, available care services, and emerging nursing practice will demonstrate the progress in combating this disease within the healthcare systems.
Diagnosis and Staging
Diagnosing cancer is a sophisticated process because it requires combining different methods before arriving at a conclusive diagnosis. The screening processes outlined by the American Cancer Society (2018) reveal that no singular test exists for carrying out this process. As a result, healthcare providers exploit different strategies and collate them to ensure they have a correct diagnosis and avert misdiagnosis, leading to wrong treatment options. The challenge associated with a diagnosis is that other diseases can present symptoms resembling those typical in different cancers. In this context, conducting a thorough assessment that comprises historical, physical, and laboratory elements become fundamental. Healthcare providers recommend various tests depending on the clinical manifestations in a patient to determine the presence or absence of cancers. They also call for successive laboratory tests to confirm true positives. According to the American Cancer Society (2018), different screening tests exist for diverse cancers, including mammography for breast cancer. As a result, identifying the applicability of a test is critical for correct diagnosis.
Clinicians use different techniques to diagnose cancers. Some of these comprise laboratory tests for tumor markers specific to various cancers, including fecal occult blood tests for colorectal cancers (American Cancer Society, 2018). Other options include imaging tests for identifying the localization of a tumor. Approaches in this category comprise CT scans, MRIs, nuclear scans, PET scans, Ultrasound, X-rays, and bone scans. They can also conduct a biopsy test that involves microscopic analysis of a cancer sample (DeVita et al., 2019). A combination of these approaches ensures that healthcare providers reach a conclusive diagnosis.
Staging in cancer care and treatment is critical because it uncovers progression information to inform the healthcare providers a...