Cancer is one of the scariest things in the world of health and medicine today. People everywhere fear getting it and are nervous for those they know who could get it. Once someone they know has it they dig around looking for cancer information and advice on cancer clinical trials. The reason for this fear is because cancer is nearly uncontrollable. In fact that is one the definitions, abnormal cells dividing without control that have the ability to invade other tissues. Now this is scary, but what makes it worse is how wide spread cancer is. Nearly 6 million people, just in the US have some sort of cancer. In this frightening time, it is good to know what cancer information and what help is out there. As mentioned before, cancer is an uncontrolled division of mutated cells. Many times these cells need to have mutated four times before they reach this level of â€uncontrolled division.†On top of that, there isn't just one type of cancer. In fact, there are over one hundred different types of cancer. The type often is determined by the tissue that is affected (eg. Breast cancer, colon cancer). Searching for cancer information will be much easier and more specific if you know what type of cancer you are dealing with. Beyond that, however, there are categories of cancer that are out there. Each one is determined by how the cancer itself is attacking the tissue. When looking through cancer information you will find these five basic types of cancer: carcinoma, sarcoma, leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and central nervous system cancers. Carcinoma is a cancer in which starts in the skin or line other internal organs. Sarcoma will start in the bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, blood vessels or some other connective tissue. Leukemia is a commonly known form of cancer that starts in the blood-forming tissues, or the bone marrow. Leukemia is very dangerous because it produces large numbers of blood cells and then releases them into the blood stream. Lymphoma and myeloma is a cancer that attacks the immune system. This weakens the person and can lead to severe illness. Finally, central nervous system cancers are relatively self-explanatory. These cancer cells begin in the brain or spinal cord. Your next question might be â€With all of this cancer information, what are we doing about it?†This is where cancer clinical trials come in. Cancer clinical trials are essentially research studies that are done to find better ways to treat, prevent, diagnose and limit the effects of cancer. Each study uses actual patients and works to find different therapies and medicines that will work to prevent or treat the different forms of cancer. They will use the cancer information that is already known and simply try to expand on that knowledge to create new and better treatments and detection methods. The cancer clinical trials are done meticulously and include three or four highly monitored steps. Everything in each step is explained and must be carried out in exactly the way it is set up to ensure quality and accurate steps. Phase one of cancer clinical trials is to determine the best way the new drug or treatment should be administered. Normally this phase only includes a very small number of people and the results of each method are recorded to see the highest degree of change. Phase two focuses on the effectiveness of the drug or treatment. Normally at this point a specific type of cancer is tested, rather than all cancers. Phase three can be the last phase because this step of the cancer clinical trials will show whether the new treatment is better than the current treatments available. If it isn't, the study is over and the treatment is thrown out. If it is better however, phase four begins. This will analyze the side effects of the treatments to determine if it is worth the risk of widespread distribution.
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