Diagnosis, Staging, and Complications of Cancer

Cancer
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Cancer
The diagnosis of cancer in its early stages is usually the best way of curing it. There are several approaches to diagnosing cancer, including physical exams, imaging tests, laboratory tests, or biopsy to diagnose cancer. A physical exam involves the physician examining areas of the patient's body for abnormalities such as lumps (from the enlargement of an organ) or changes in skin color that often designate the incidence of cancer. Imaging tests are another way of diagnosing cancer and allowing the physician to examine internal organs and bones noninvasively. Some of the imaging tests employed in cancer diagnosis are bone scan, position emission tomography (PET) scan, computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray, and ultrasound, among others (Koo et al., 2019). Laboratory exams such as blood and urine tests can also reveal abnormalities resulting from cancer. For instance, a blood count is often used to identify abnormal white blood cells and diagnose leukemia's presence. On the other hand, a biopsy involves collecting a sample of the patient's cells to test for cancer. There are different ways the doctor may collect cell samples depending on the type of cancer and its location.
Cancer staging denotes the extent of cancer, including how far the disease has spread or how large the tumor is. From the tests highlighted above, the doctor can determine the severity of the cancer, the best treatment for the patient, and his or her chances of survival. Cancer is typically described using five-stage groupings: stage 0, stage I, stage II, stage III, and stage IV. In stage 0, cancer has not yet spread to nearby tissues and is concentrated where it started. This stage is usually the best time to seek treatment, and surgery is often successful in removing the whole tumor. In stage I, cancer has started spreading into nearby tissues, although not in a deeply grown manner to reach the lymph nodes or other body parts. It is often referred to as early-stage cancer. Cancer has grown more deeply into surrounding tissue in stage II and stage III and spread to lymph nodes, although other parts of the body are unaffected. Cancer has already spread to other body parts and organs in stage IV. It is often called metastatic or advanced cancer.
One of the complications of cancer is skin changes like darkening, reddening, and yellowing of the skin or skin sores accompanied by largening of existing moles. The other two cancer complications are persistent indigestion or changes in bowel and bladder habits and persistent and inexplicable fevers or night sweats. Cancer treatment often usually results in several side effects depending on the treatment and individual. These include neutropenia (decrease in white blood cell count from chemotherapy), lymphedema (fluid buildup under the skin from damaged lymph nodes during radiation), hair loss (alopecia from chemotherapy), nausea and vomiting, difficulty in thinking or remembering things, deep vein thrombosis (blood clots from chemotherapy), trouble eating, diarrhea, fatigues, and depression (National Cancer Institute, 2018). These side effects are usually managed ...