Paper Sample: Ovarian and Prostate Cancer

Ovarian cancer is a type of malignancy that affects the ovary of a woman. (Jayson, Kohn, Kitchener, & Ledermann, 2014). It is one of the commonest causes of fatalities in women that are related to cancer in the United States of America. It is ranked fifth most fatal type of cancer. Statistics provide that over 22000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed every year in America. (Siegel, Ma, Zou, & Jemal, 2014). Cancer is a deadly disease which causes deaths in all the countries of the world. However, if cancer is diagnosed earlier, the patient will have a high chance of surviving. Almost 94% of the women diagnosed with ovarian cancer can live an additional five years following early diagnosis as well as the commencement of the appropriate treatment. (Miller, Siegel, Lin, Mariotto, Kramer, Rowland, & Jemal, 2016).Some of the predisposing factors of ovarian cancer in women include age, a positive family history of the disease, reproductive history of the woman, lifestyle including smoking, as well as obesity. All the women who fall into any of the risks highlighted should, therefore, try practicing preventive measures as per the advice of her doctor. Some of the preventive measures include lifestyle modification. Women who smoke should consider quitting smoking. Obese women should consider living a life that is active to prevent and help manage excessive weight. For the women who come from families with a positive history of ovarian cancer, regular check-ups would be critical to aid in earlier detection of the disease, and in case there are tumors, early treatment should commence.

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Ovarian cancers that are diagnosed in early stages may be treated successfully with more than 94% of the patients recovering fully. Some of the treatment methods include the administration of chemo drugs such as methotrexate, vincristine and doxorubicin, surgical incision to remove the tumors as well as radiation therapy where the patient is exposed to radiations to burn the cancer cells in the ovary. (Sweeney, Chen, Carducci, Liu, Jarrard, Eisenberger, & Dreicer, 2015). These methods are however challenging to the patient as they have implications both short term and long term. These effects may include vomiting, diarrhea, and some mild reactions. Long-term effects may consist of falling off of hair for patients subjected to radiation therapy. Surgical incisions may get infected causing other problems to the patient. Finally, some of these treatment procedures especially radiation therapy may lead to other forms of cancer to the patient other than the case being treated.

Prostate cancer in men is a severe problem. This type affects the men specifically the prostate gland. This is the most prevalent type of malignancy affecting the males in the United States of America which claims the lives of the most men. This type of cancer is easily treatable if found in the early stages. Statistics from the American Cancer Society it is predicted that there will be about 161360 new cases. It also provides that over 26730 deaths will occur due to this type of cancer. (Siegel, et al., 2014).Similar to ovarian cancer, some risk factors of this type of cancer include, age, lifestyle, positive family history of the disease in the family. With the knowledge about these risks, some efforts are put in place to prevent this disease. Some of the preventive measures include lifestyle modification such as stopping smoking, managing proper body weight and living an active life such as doing simple exercises as well as checking on the diet.

There are several methods for treating this type of cancer. Similar to ovarian cancer in women, prostate cancer can be managed using surgery, chemotherapy using drugs such as doxorubicin, vincristine, and methotrexate among others. (Sweeney, et al., 2015). Radiotherapy is another way of treating prostate cancer. Other methods may include brachytherapy where the radioactive seed is put into the prostate to deliver the desired radiation to the target part. Additionally, androgen deprivation therapy is also used to treat this disease. This method involves the use of hormone to minimize the impact of the androgen hormone in men. This hormone is capable of triggering the growth of cancer. The effects of these treatment methods are similar to those of ovarian cancer treatment.

References

Jayson, G. C., Kohn, E. C., Kitchener, H. C., & Ledermann, J. A. (2014). Ovarian cancer. The Lancet, 384(9951), 1376-1388.

Miller, K. D., Siegel, R. L., Lin, C. C., Mariotto, A. B., Kramer, J. L., Rowland, J. H., ... & Jemal, A. (2016). Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2016. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 66(4), 271-289.

Siegel, R., Ma, J., Zou, Z., & Jemal, A. (2014). Cancer statistics, 2014. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 64(1), 9-29.

Sweeney, C. J., Chen, Y. H., Carducci, M., Liu, G., Jarrard, D. F., Eisenberger, M., ... & Dreicer, R. (2015). Chemohormonal therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(8), 737-746.