Directory of health resources for healthcare professionals. » Cancer http://pharmafda.net Includes healthcare and medical information on disease and health improvement topics. Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:19:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 THE CAUSE OF CANCER: ANALYTICAL STUDIES http://pharmafda.net/2011/05/the-cause-of-cancer-analytical-studies/ http://pharmafda.net/2011/05/the-cause-of-cancer-analytical-studies/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 15:02:49 +0000 admin http://pharmafda.net/?p=189 In the performance of analytical studies epidemiologists move from the demanding chores of collecting accurate information into the realms of designing studies that seek to answer important individual questions about the causes of cancer. In this area they will usually have an idea to test – a hypothesis about some possible causative factor. The focus shifts from whole nations or whole regions to a much more closely defined group of individuals. By collecting a great deal more information about a rather smaller number of people (but not so small that our conclusions might be based on pure chance), it is possible not only to demonstrate links between particular factors and particular cancers but also to look carefully to see if there are any possible alternative links which have to be considered or excluded by careful work. A number of methods of performing analytical epidemiology are recognized and are worth mentioning to give the general flavour of this sort of work: cohort studies, case-control studies and intervention or experimental studies.Intervention or Experimental Studies. These studies represent the most difficult but in many ways the most informative of all forms of analytic epidemiology.Here, two very similar groups of people are identified, often by computer-generated methods, randomly allocating people into one or other of the groups. With the consent of the people involved, one half are asked to undertake a change in their lifestyle. Perhaps a particular dietary clement may be changed for that group alone, on the theory that that dietary element may be related to cancer. The people are then studied for a long period of rime to see if there is any difference in the medical outcomes between the two groups. Since the groups of people were essentially identical at the beginning, any differences that emerge arc very likely to be linked directly to the change that was introduced for one group alone. This it precise science which can give accurate answers, but it is fraught with many human problems. The first of these is ethical. If there is a strong and genuine suspicion that the intervention may be helpful, and that only one group will benefit from it, many physicians would feel it morally wrong to perform such studies. Equally, if, as is essential in all medical research, the people involved are fully informed of the experiment being undertaken, many may feel unwilling to join. This means that accruing numbers of people into these studies may prove difficult. It is also extremely difficult to choose the right point in time at which to undertake an intervention study. If the risk factor being studied is very likely to be associated with cancer, then the ethical constraints will make at too difficult to perform the study, since no researcher will want just one group of people to benefit from an intervention study which leaves the other group exposed to a highly probable risk. If, on the other hand, the information . about the risk factor is very preliminary and perhaps weak, then there may not be sufficient reason to deploy the resources required for an intervention study in order to evaluate it fully. In a few circumstances the right point has been identified and there are currently major debates about whether intervention studies to test 9 number of other important theories are appropriate.*18\194\4*

]]> http://pharmafda.net/2011/05/the-cause-of-cancer-analytical-studies/feed/ 0 SOCIAL CHANGE AND CANCER IN THE WORKPLACE http://pharmafda.net/2011/01/social-change-and-cancer-in-the-workplace/ http://pharmafda.net/2011/01/social-change-and-cancer-in-the-workplace/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:28:22 +0000 admin http://pharmafda.net/?p=163
We are in an era of rapid change in the workplace. In the more industrialized parts of the world, the introduction of new technology is reducing the direct involvement of workers in manufacturing and the service sectors are expanding rapidly. There is therefore a trend towards white-collar working and this trend is likely to continue or accelerate as automated processes play a greater and greater part in industry. Dr Elspeth Linge from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen has recently asked whether these likely future trends will have an effect upon the incidence of cancer.
In her analysis she looks at forty-one individual kinds of cancer and compares the incidence between male skilled workers) farmers and academics living in Denmark. This sort of exercise is not very precise because there will be many other differences between these groups, besides their work environment, which might account for different rates of incidence of cancer. However, this sort of study can give us useful clues. The groups might be taken to represent the white-collared sedentary office worker (academics), the worker in industry who might be exposed to occupational hazards (skilled industrial workers) and farmers, who will typically be exposed to an outdoor environment. Many cancers showed no great difference between the different groupings in this overview. However, some cancers were more than twice as common in the skilled workers (bladder, small intestine, oesophagus, lung, liver, head and neck, breast, mesothelioma) and many of these are familiar as examples of the cancers that are related to occupational exposure. Among farmers, cancer of the lip emerged as being twice as common and this incidence is related to outdoor exposure. Among the academics, cancers of the kidney and melanoma were more than twice as common as in the other groups. Melanoma is typically found in office workers who rush off and get sunburned for short periods on holiday and during recreation. Is there a message in this sort of analysis? It has to be interpreted cautiously because smoking will also be typical of skilled factory workers and may explain much of the excess of cancer of the head and neck, and lung cancer. Broadly, however, the study shows that skilled workers are at risk of the kinds of cancers that are associated with occupational exposures. As safety standards increase in the workplace over time, and automation reduces or replaces some of these skilled jobs, these cancers might be expected to decrease. Outdoor workers like farmers will remain at risk of the cancers associated with extensive sun exposure, for instance. The academics may represent a group whose style of working will be more common in the next century. The high incidence of melanoma in this group fits in very well with our previous suggestions and highlights the need for preventative measures in this area.
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SOCIAL CHANGE AND CANCER IN THE WORKPLACEWe are in an era of rapid change in the workplace. In the more industrialized parts of the world, the introduction of new technology is reducing the direct involvement of workers in manufacturing and the service sectors are expanding rapidly. There is therefore a trend towards white-collar working and this trend is likely to continue or accelerate as automated processes play a greater and greater part in industry. Dr Elspeth Linge from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen has recently asked whether these likely future trends will have an effect upon the incidence of cancer.In her analysis she looks at forty-one individual kinds of cancer and compares the incidence between male skilled workers) farmers and academics living in Denmark. This sort of exercise is not very precise because there will be many other differences between these groups, besides their work environment, which might account for different rates of incidence of cancer. However, this sort of study can give us useful clues. The groups might be taken to represent the white-collared sedentary office worker (academics), the worker in industry who might be exposed to occupational hazards (skilled industrial workers) and farmers, who will typically be exposed to an outdoor environment. Many cancers showed no great difference between the different groupings in this overview. However, some cancers were more than twice as common in the skilled workers (bladder, small intestine, oesophagus, lung, liver, head and neck, breast, mesothelioma) and many of these are familiar as examples of the cancers that are related to occupational exposure. Among farmers, cancer of the lip emerged as being twice as common and this incidence is related to outdoor exposure. Among the academics, cancers of the kidney and melanoma were more than twice as common as in the other groups. Melanoma is typically found in office workers who rush off and get sunburned for short periods on holiday and during recreation. Is there a message in this sort of analysis? It has to be interpreted cautiously because smoking will also be typical of skilled factory workers and may explain much of the excess of cancer of the head and neck, and lung cancer. Broadly, however, the study shows that skilled workers are at risk of the kinds of cancers that are associated with occupational exposures. As safety standards increase in the workplace over time, and automation reduces or replaces some of these skilled jobs, these cancers might be expected to decrease. Outdoor workers like farmers will remain at risk of the cancers associated with extensive sun exposure, for instance. The academics may represent a group whose style of working will be more common in the next century. The high incidence of melanoma in this group fits in very well with our previous suggestions and highlights the need for preventative measures in this area.*99\194\4*

]]> http://pharmafda.net/2011/01/social-change-and-cancer-in-the-workplace/feed/ 0 YOUR CANCER YOUR LIFE – SYMPTOMS OF EXTENSIVE (METASTATIC) DISEASE (CANCER IN THE LUNG) http://pharmafda.net/2009/05/your-cancer-your-life-%e2%80%93-symptoms-of-extensive-metastatic-disease-cancer-in-the-lung/ http://pharmafda.net/2009/05/your-cancer-your-life-%e2%80%93-symptoms-of-extensive-metastatic-disease-cancer-in-the-lung/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 12:11:56 +0000 admin http://pharmafda.net/2009/05/your-cancer-your-life-%e2%80%93-symptoms-of-extensive-metastatic-disease-cancer-in-the-lung/ Cancer in the lungs causes difficulty in breathing. The job of the lungs is to put oxygen into the blood and take waste gases such as carbon dioxide out. If part of the lung is destroyed, the rest of the lung has to work harder to do this. This means the patient needs to breath faster and gets puffed out easily on exertion. Breathing extra oxygen, especially at times of exertion, helps the lungs to get enough oxygen into the blood. Other symptoms may include a cough and wheezing. As with the liver, pain is not common. It only occurs if the cancer grows through or stretches the sensitive outer lining of the lung. This lining is called the pleura (it is what gets inflamed in pleurisy). Sometimes, breathlessness is due to fluid forming outside the lung. If this happens it is often possible to take the fluid off with a needle or tube through the skin. This can give very good but temporary relief as the fluid will form again unless the cancer that is producing it can be successfully treated. Breathing extra oxygen allows the damaged lung to get enough oxygen into the blood only up to a certain point. If too much of the lungs are destroyed, oxygen in the blood drops and carbon dioxide builds up, gradually causing drowsiness and loss of consciousness and death.

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