History Of Cancerous Cancer

As you are on the way to the hospital with the right side of your abdomen hurting and you are thinking its appendicitis. An hour into the hospital visit they take you into immediate surgery to remove the bursting appendix. After you are in the recovery room for 12 hours, the doctors enter and tell you that it was not appendicitis as everyone thought but something much more serious. After a biopsy the doctors found that there was a cancerous tumor in the appendix that was causing it to expand and cause pain. At a follow up visit the doctor says that they believe they removed all of the cancerous tumor, but to keep up with regular check-ups, and if anything abnormal happens to go to the doctor and get checked out. You also are informed that if the tumor was not caught as early, it would have spread and killed you in 3 years. Cancerous treatment has advanced since cancer has been diagnosed due to the increase of research on cancer. The earliest date of cancerous tumors come from 1600 BC with the Egyptians. There has been evidence of tumors found in fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in Ancient Egypt, and in manuscripts (Halsted). The earliest recording of tumors describes eight cases of tumors of the breast. The writing found describing these tumors say “there is no treatment” (Halsted). Cancerous tumors have been around for decades but it was not until 1761 that Giocanni Morgagni did an autopsy after a patient died and laid the foundation for the study of cancer; oncology ("Evolution of cancer treatments: Chemotherapy."). Surgeon John Hunter suggested surgery to remove the tumors. The doctors would have to decide if the tumor is able to be removed. Hunter claimed that tumors were only removable if they were not attached to any tissue surrounding the tumor. In the 19th century Rudolf Virchow looked at the cancerous tumor cells under a microscope and found out how much damage they cause to the human body ("Evolution of cancer treatments: Chemotherapy."). In the late 19th century anesthesia was discovered and the removal of cancerous tumors flourished (Halsted). Now day’s cancer research is the largest research program in the country. There is early detection and more knowledge on how to cure and treat cancer before it can spread and cause damage to the rest of the body. There are many different ways to try to get rid of cancer. The most common and oldest technique is surgical. The surgeon cuts into the area where the cancer is and removes the tumor. Surgery helps detect what stage the cancer is in, if it spread, and diagnosing it ("Surgery For Cancer Treatment."). Inna from “Swimming in the Daylight” had her tumor removed multiple times from the back of her neck. Every time she had the surgery they took healthy tissue from the muscle on her neck so her neck would be extremely sore during the recover. Every time the doctors removed healthy tissue from her neck it became harder for Inna to support it by herself. Eventually, she could barely hold her head up without support (Paul). There are other types of treatment like chemotherapy and radiation. These two types can be less effective but can also stop the cancer from spreading. Chemotherapy gives drugs and medicines to treat cancer. Most people are uneasy about using chemotherapy because it kills off healthy skin cells as well as the cancerous ones. Also, chemotherapy can affect the health of the patient and make their immune systems not as strong so they are more likely to catch a sickness and become very ill. People who are on Chemotherapy have to be very careful who they come in contact with because they become very ill and something as simple as the common cold could become deadly to them.
Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells ("Radiation Therapy for Cancer."). Radiation can target a select group of cells, but it does not detect from healthy and cancer cells, so it kills off any cell that it comes in contact with.

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