YOUR CANCER, YOUR LIFE – BLOOD TESTS (REFERENCE TO BLOOD TESTS)
May 12th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: CancerNo Comments
You may have been wondering why I have made no reference to blood tests yet. This is because blood tests are rarely useful in making a definite diagnosis of cancer. You remember the two essential steps in diagnosing cancer don’t you?— ’seeing’ the source of the symptom and taking a specimen. Blood tests are no use for either of these unless the cancer actually starts in one of the types of blood or lymph cells. With leukaemias, some myelomas and some lymphomas, enough malignant cells travel in the bloodstream to allow a diagnosis to be made by looking at a small sample of blood under the microscope. Even so, specimens from bone marrow or lymph nodes are usually necessary as well.
You may well ask: ‘But don’t many types of cancer spread through the bloodstream?’ Indeed they do. The problem is that only a few cells at a time are released from the primary cancer and they don’t stay in the blood for long. The chances of actually seeing them in a small blood specimen are minute. It can happen but it’s very rare.
Blood tests sometimes help by giving us clues as to where to look when cancer is suspected.
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BONE METASTASES – BONE SCANS (DESCRIPTION)
May 12th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: CancerNo Comments
Bone scans are a Very useful means of looking for secondaries. They can also pick up cancer deposits in bones which look normal on plain X-ray. A spot which has hardly weakened the bone at all still produces a reaction in the normal bone cells nearby. It is in these active bone cells that the radioactive substance is concentrated. Thus the bone scan can detect cancer deposits which are at an earlier stage than those visible on a plain X-ray. The problem is that the bone scan shows up all reactive bone cells regardless of the reason for the reaction. Fractures (recent or old), arthritis and infections also can show up on bone scans as ‘hot spots’. Bones which show ‘hot spots’ on scan usually have to be X-rayed to find out what is causing them. Occasionally the normal bone cells do not react to cancer cells nearby. In this case the bone scan will be falsely negative, that is, will miss the cancer spots. This happens especially with myeloma. The most reliable way of looking for bone secondaries is with a combination of bone scan and X-rays.
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PURPURA – GENERAL INFORMATION
May 12th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: General healthNo Comments
The Schonlein-Henoch syndrome or anaphylactoid purpura is essentially a disease of childhood usually at around the ages of five to seven.
It is believed to be an allergic type reaction occurring some weeks after a respiratory infection and, in this respect, resembles rheumatic fever.
The lesion is an inflammation of small blood vessels and affects many organs. The skin is almost always involved and small bleedings under the skin produce the small red marks called purpura.
The joints, the gastro-intestinal tract and the kidneys may also be involved.
No treatment appears to be effective, but, in most cases, the disorder slowly resolves over six to eight weeks. About 5 to 10 per cent may go on to develop chronic kidney inflammation.
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