Tag Archives: Cancer

Sarcoma Cancer Survival Rate

Posted on by

In the recent years, the medical field has been trying to come up with ways to increase the sarcoma cancer survival rate, but without much luck. As of today, the sarcoma cancer survival rate is still amongst the lowest in all cancer types and seemed to continually decline as more studies are conducted.

Sarcoma may equally develop on both adults and children and may start at any parts of the body. Most sarcomas arise from soft tissues and bones with 60% starting from our extremities, 30% on the middle body part like the abdomen, and 10% from the head and neck. Not many people acquire this cancer – Cancer.net reports that only 1% of all adult cancer cases are sarcoma. However, the disease is quite high in children at around 15%.

The most common type of sarcoma is soft-tissue sarcoma which arises from connective tissues in our body. This type of sarcoma is pretty common because it naturally occurs at any parts of the body.

A 5 year sarcoma cancer survival rate is the ratio between the number of patients with sarcoma who are still alive 5 years after being diagnosed to the number of those who didn’t make it. Regardless of the stage or type of sarcoma cancer, the sarcoma cancer survival rate is relatively 50-50 so 1 out of 2 patients live more than 5 years with adequate cure.

Some researchers argue with this result because there are types of sarcomas that are naturally more critical compared to the other types.

Eighty three percent of those patients who were diagnosed at the first stage of the cancer were able to survive until 5 years. Treatment at this stage usually includes surgery and a couple of chemotherapy sessions. Four out of five patients remain living because at this stage, the cancer is very easy to remove since it is still confined at one part of the body.

It’s when the sarcoma begins spreading out of other tissues that the sarcoma survival rate may become quite lower. And at the final stage, only 1 out of 8 people survive the cancer and add 5 or more years in their lives.

The good thing is more than half of the patients with sarcoma are diagnosed at the first stages. Hopefully, this will increase more with the help of more advanced equipments and more medical missions to propagate awareness of sarcoma cancer not just in the US but also worldwide.

Cancer Treatments and Side-Effects: Surgery and Radiation Therapy

Posted on by

When your oncologist tells you that you’ll be undergoing radiation therapy for your cancer, a lot of questions may be going through your mind that you may not ask. It is completely understandable that you may be overwhelmed and just don’t want to think about the next set of challenges you’ll be facing, but not knowing what lies ahead can make treatment a more difficult process. Being aware of the common types of cancer treatment and their side effects can help prepare you for the realities of cancer treatment and give you the information necessary to have a thorough conversation about treatment options with your doctor.

Surgery

Probably the earliest form of cancer treatment, surgery is actually used for multiple purposes when it comes to cancer. It is used to prevent, diagnose, stage, and treat cancer. There are two main types of surgery that may be used to wholly or partially treat cancer. Curative surgery, also called primary surgery, is typically done when cancer is only found in one part of the body and the probability that ALL of it can be removed is high. Surgery is the main treatment in this case. Other treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, may be used before or after the operation. If curative surgery is not possible because it would cause too much damage to nearby tissues or organs, debulking surgery may be used to remove some of the cancer. The doctor would take out as much as possible and then treat the remaining cancer with other treatments.

Side-effects of cancer surgery are similar to the side-effects of any surgery and may include pain, fatigue, appetite loss, swelling and/or bruising at surgery site, numbness, bleeding, infection, and organ dysfunction.

Radiation Therapy

One of the most common treatments for cancer, radiation therapy uses high-energy waves or particles (radiation) to damage or destroy cancer cells. Special equipment sends high doses of radiation to the tumor or cancer cells to prevent them from growing and spreading. Radiation therapy can affect normal cells near a tumor, but normal cells have the power to repair themselves while cancer cells do not. The form of treatment may be the only type needed or it may be just one part of a patient’s treatment plan. Unlike chemotherapy, radiation therapy treats just the cancer while chemo treats the whole body.

General side-effects of radiation therapy may include fatigue, skin irritation, fever/chills, (if receiving radiation to the neck or head area) sore mouth, dry mouth, (if receiving radiation to abdomen) nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, appetite change, (radiation to chest) pain or difficulty swallowing, soreness of breast, and other side-effects related to the specific site of radiation. Be sure to ask your doctor what side-effects to expect for your particular radiation therapy treatment.