Cancer Explained – Learn More About Cancer & Available Treatment Options From Canopy Cancer Care

If you, or someone close to you, has been diagnosed with cancer you know how overwhelming it can feel. Maybe you are also getting a lot of confusing information and advice. Canopy Cancer Care will explain what cancer really is and help you explore the available treatment options. The more you know, the more confident you will feel talking to your Doctor.

Our bodies are made up of millions of cells, and inside each cell is an instruction manual called DNA, which has chapters we call genes. Genes tell the cells how to behave, when to make new cells and when to die. When cells divide they make a copy of their DNA and genes, so that each new cell has the same instructions. That copy also divides, and so on. While older, damaged cells are told to die off, making way for new healthy ones, occasionally the DNA instruction manual in a cell can get damaged or mutated.

The cause of this mutation can be a chemical or environmental carcinogen, or you might even have a hereditary risk for cancer. Other times the cause is unknown. While healthy cells are trained to listen to signals, and to grow, divide and die, the cells with the mutated DNA sometimes ignore your body’s signals, and these rogue cells continue to divide unchecked. This is how cancer starts.

In some cases the cancer stays put and is localised but in other cases the cancer spreads and metastasizes. When they are metastatic, the tumours consume the body’s resources as they grow, damaging healthy, functional organs along the way.

When considering treatment options your Doctor may order genomic testing for your tumour. Genomic testing reads the instruction manual of cancer cells to identify the mutations that may be causing the cancer to grow. Depending on the stage of your cancer your Doctor may use a standard method to initially treat your cancer, such as surgery to remove the tumour, radiation used in small doses to kill the cancer cells in a precise area of your body, or chemotherapy to kill rapidly dividing cells throughout your body if the cancer has spread.

Your Doctor may also consider targeted therapy drugs, which are developed to precisely target the underlying DNA mutations causing your tumour to grow.  They may be less toxic and more effective than chemothreapy, or immunotherapy which uses the power of your own immune system to attack cancer cells. Genomic testing can help your Doctor choose the targeted therapy or immunotherapy option that is best suited for your specific cancer.

Understanding what your cancer is, and the options available to you is a great first step towards developing a treatment plan with your Doctor that works for you, so for more information on chemotherapy NZ, cancer treatments,  integrative oncology and private cancer treatments please go to http://www.canopycancercare.co.nz .