Cancer Answers 123

Cancer Topics

Cancer Answers123 has been created to give both patients and professionals a single web based portal from which they can begin a search for information and answers to all questions regarding cancer and related topics. 

You will find the latest social network, news, information in text and video form as well as the most useful links for assistance in gaining answers. Content, articles, blogs and newsfeeds are provided and maintained by cancer professionals from around the world.

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What is Cancer?

How to select an Oncologist 

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the number and variety of doctors who are involved in your care as a cancer patient.

There is very good reason so many experts are required. Cancer treatments are most effective when provided by experienced specialists with particular areas of expertise. Here’s an overview of the types of cancer specialists you may be working with, separately or as part of a team:

Oncologists are physicians who study, diagnose, and treat cancer. Each oncologist trains initially as a specialist in a particular area, such as surgery or gynecology, and then narrows his or her focus to cancers within that specialty. So, for example, a medical oncologist is an internist who treats cancer of the internal organs with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and other medications, and a hematologic oncologist is an oncologist who treats cancers of the blood. Other specialties include gynecological, surgical, radiation, and pediatric oncology.

Naturopathic physicians prescribe natural therapies to slow tumor growth, strengthen the immune system through nutrition and to enhance conventional treatments.

Your relationship with oncologists has several phases, including diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare. You may work with the same doctors throughout or select a new team at some point. For example, if a second opinion differs from the original diagnosis and treatment approach, you’ll have to decide which doctor’s views you’re more comfortable with — or seek a third perspective. Or, you may be completely confident with an oncologist’s diagnosis but prefer to be treated at a different hospital than the one where that oncologist is on the staff.

It’s also worth switching oncologists if you don’t seem to click. People have different personalities and communication styles. Maybe your doctor doesn’t provide the encouragement you’re seeking, for example, or perhaps his or her treatment philosophy is to watch and wait while you’d rather take action, or the other way around. There’s nothing wrong with seeking a more compatible bond.

How to Select a Treatment Facility or Hospital

Cancer Centers Program
The NCI's Cancer Centers Program supports major academic and research institutions throughout the United States to sustain broad-based, coordinated, interdisciplinary programs in cancer research.

Cancer Centers List
List of NCI-designated cancer centers and comprehensive cancer centers.

Cancer Centers Directors' Report
A report from the directors of NCI-designated Cancer Centers that provides a blueprint on how the Cancer Centers can help accelerate our success against cancer by both expanding our knowledge of cancer and expeditiously improving the care of cancer patients.

National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers
National Cancer Institute-supported cancer centers may be found by searching this database.

NCI Cancer Bulletin for March 15, 2005 (HTML)
Special issue of the NCI Cancer Bulletin, focusing on NCI-designated cancer centers.

Guidelines for Comprehensive Designation
Information about the NCI process of designating a cancer center as "comprehensive."
http://www.cancer.gov/search/results.aspx
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Nutrition in Cancer Care

Cancer and cancer treatments may cause nutrition-related side effects.

An important part of cancer treatment is a patient’s proper nutrition and diet. Eating the right kinds of foods before, during, and after treatment can help the patient feel better and stay stronger. To ensure proper nutrition, a person has to eat and drink enough of the foods that contain key nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fat, and water). For many patients, however, some side effects of cancer and cancer treatments make it difficult to eat well.

Symptoms that interfere with eating include:

• anorexia
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• constipation
• mouth sores
• trouble with swallowing
• pain
• depression
• anxiety

Good eating habits during cancer care help the patient cope with the effects of the cancer and its treatment.

Nutrition therapy can help cancer patients get the nutrients needed to maintain body weight and strength, prevent body tissue from breaking down, rebuild tissue, and fight infection. Eating guidelines for cancer patients can be very different from the usual suggestions for healthful eating. Nutrition recommendations for cancer patients are designed to help the patient cope with the effects of the cancer and its treatment. Some cancer treatments are more effective if the patient is well nourished and getting enough calories and protein in the diet. People who eat well during cancer treatment may even be able to handle higher doses of certain treatments. Being well-nourished has been linked to a better chance of recovery.

A lack of key nutrients or malnutrition can result from lack of appetite, taste, smell, and the ability to eat enough food or absorb the nutrients from food. These factors may also result in patient weakness, tiredness and an inability to resist infections or withstand cancer therapies. Eating too little protein and calories is the most common nutrition problem facing many cancer patients. Protein and calories are important for healing, fighting infection, and providing energy.

Two Common Causes of Malnutrition During Treatment
Anorexia and cachexia are common causes of malnutrition in cancer patients.

Anorexia (the loss of appetite or desire to eat) is a common symptom in people with cancer. Anorexia may occur early in the disease or later, when the tumor grows and spreads. Some patients may have anorexia when they are diagnosed with cancer. Almost all patients who have widespread cancer will develop anorexia. Anorexia is the most common cause of malnutrition in cancer patients.

Cachexia is a wasting syndrome that causes weakness and a loss of weight, fat, and muscle. It commonly occurs in patients with tumors of the lung, pancreas, and upper gastrointestinal tract and less often in patients with breast cancer or lower gastrointestinal cancer. Anorexia and cachexia often occur together. Weight loss can be caused by eating fewer calories, using more calories, or a combination of the two. Cancer cachexia is not the same as starvation. A healthy person's body can adjust to starvation by slowing down its use of nutrients, but in cancer patients, the body does not make this adjustment.
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What Cancer Patients should know about Health Insurance 

Coping with cancer is more burden than anyone should have to bear. When that burden is compounded with concerns about your health insurance benefits, it can interfere with your ability to do what you need to do most – heal.  Please visit the following links for information on health insurance and cancer patients, the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and the Cancer Compass website.

http://www.cancercenter.com/about-us/insurance.cfm and http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-guide/living-with-cancer/health-insurance.html
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New Approaches to Cancer Treatment

http://www.cancercompass.com/search-results.htm?q=new+approaches+to+cancer+treatment
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