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Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radiation therapy may be curative in a number of types of cancer if they are localized to one area of the body. It may also be used as part of adjuvant therapy, to prevent tumor recurrence after surgery to remove a primary malignant tumor (for example, early stages of breast cancer). Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy, and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers. The subspecialty of oncology concerned with radiotherapy is called radiation oncology. A physician who practices in this subspecialty is a radiation oncologist. Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumor because of its ability to control cell growth. Ionizing radiation works by damaging the DNA of cancerous tissue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Pelvis
The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The pelvic region of the trunk includes the bony pelvis, the pelvic cavity (the space enclosed by the bony pelvis), the pelvic floor, below the pelvic cavity, and the perineum, below the pelvic floor. The pelvic skeleton is formed in the area of the back, by the sacrum and the coccyx and anteriorly and to the left and right sides, by a pair of hip bones. The two hip bones connect the spine with the lower limbs. They are attached to the sacrum posteriorly, connected to each other anteriorly, and joined with the two femurs at the hip joints. The gap enclosed by the bony pelvis, called the pelvic cavity, is the section of the body underneath the abdomen and mainly consists of the reproductive organs (sex organs) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neoadjuvant Therapy
Neoadjuvant therapy is the administration of therapeutic agents before a main treatment. One example is neoadjuvant hormone therapy prior to radical radiotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Neoadjuvant therapy aims to reduce the size or extent of the cancer before using radical treatment intervention, thus both making procedures easier and more likely to succeed and reducing the consequences of a more extensive treatment technique, which would be required if the tumor were not reduced in size or extent. Another related concept is that neoadjuvant therapy acts on micrometastatic disease. The downstaging is then a surrogate marker of efficacy on undetected dissemination, resulting in improved longtime survival compared to the surgery-alone strategy. This systemic therapy (chemotherapy, immunotherapy or hormone therapy) or radiation therapy is commonly used in cancers that are locally advanced, and clinicians plan an operation at a later stage, such as pancreatic cancer. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palliative Care Options For A Young Adult Patient With A Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma - Fig
Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual." In the past, palliative care was a disease specific approach, but today the WHO takes a more broad approach, that the principles of palliative care should be applied as early as possible to any chronic and ultimately fatal illness. Palliative care is appropriate for individuals with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heterotopic Ossification
Heterotopic ossification (HO) is the process by which bone tissue forms outside of the skeleton in muscles and soft tissue. Symptoms In traumatic heterotopic ossification (traumatic myositis ossificans), the patient may complain of a warm, tender, firm swelling in a muscle and decreased range of motion in the joint served by the muscle involved. There is often a history of a blow or other trauma to the area a few weeks to a few months earlier. Patients with traumatic neurological injuries, severe neurologic disorders or severe burns who develop heterotopic ossification experience limitation of motion in the areas affected. Causes Heterotopic ossification of varying severity can be caused by surgery or trauma to the hips and legs. About every third patient who has total hip arthroplasty (joint replacement) or a severe fracture of the long bones of the lower leg will develop heterotopic ossification, but is uncommonly symptomatic. Between 50% and 90% of patients who developed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Restenosis
Restenosis is the recurrence of stenosis, a narrowing of a blood vessel, leading to restricted blood flow. Restenosis usually pertains to an artery or other large blood vessel that has become narrowed, received treatment to clear the blockage and subsequently become renarrowed. This is usually restenosis of an artery, or other blood vessel, or possibly a vessel within an organ. Restenosis is a common adverse event of endovascular procedures. Procedures frequently used to treat the vascular damage from atherosclerosis and related narrowing and renarrowing (restenosis) of blood vessels include vascular surgery, cardiac surgery, and angioplasty. When a stent is used and restenosis occurs, this is called in-stent restenosis or ISR. If it occurs following balloon angioplasty, this is called post-angioplasty restenosis or PARS. The diagnostic threshold for restenosis in both ISR or PARS is ≥50% stenosis. If restenosis occurs after a procedure, follow-up imaging is not the only way to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keloid
Keloid, also known as keloid disorder and keloidal scar, is the formation of a type of scar which, depending on its maturity, is composed mainly of either type III (early) or type I (late) collagen. It is a result of an overgrowth of granulation tissue (collagen type 3) at the site of a healed skin injury which is then slowly replaced by collagen type 1. Keloids are firm, rubbery lesions or shiny, fibrous nodules, and can vary from pink to the color of the person's skin or red to dark brown in color. A keloid scar is benign and not contagious, but sometimes accompanied by severe itchiness, pain, and changes in texture. In severe cases, it can affect movement of skin. In the United States keloid scars are seen 15 times more frequently in people of sub-Saharan African descent than in people of European descent. There is a higher tendency to develop a keloid among those with a family history of keloids and people between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Keloids should not be confused wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterygium
Pterygium (plural ''pterygia'' or ''pterygiums'') refers to any wing-like triangular membrane occurring in the neck, eyes, knees, elbows, ankles or digits. The term comes from the Greek word ''pterygion'' meaning "wing". Types * Popliteal pterygium syndrome, a congenital condition affecting the face, limbs, or genitalia but named after the wing-like structural anomaly behind the knee * Pterygium (eye) or surfer's eye, a growth on the cornea of the eye * Pterygium colli or webbed neck, a congenital skin fold of the neck down to the shoulders * Pterygium inversum unguis or ventral pterygium, adherence of the distal portion of the nailbed to the ventral surface of the nail plate * Pterygium unguis Pterygium unguis (or dorsal pterygiumFreedberg, et al. (2003). ''Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine''. (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill. .) forms as a result of scarring between the proximal nailfold and matrix, with the classic example being liche ... or dorsal pterygium, scarring betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graves' Ophthalmopathy
Graves’ ophthalmopathy, also known as thyroid eye disease (TED), is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder of the orbit and periorbital tissues, characterized by upper eyelid retraction, lid lag, swelling, redness (erythema), conjunctivitis, and bulging eyes (exophthalmos). It occurs most commonly in individuals with Graves' disease, and less commonly in individuals with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, or in those who are euthyroid. It is part of a systemic process with variable expression in the eyes, thyroid, and skin, caused by autoantibodies that bind to tissues in those organs. The autoantibodies target the fibroblasts in the eye muscles, and those fibroblasts can differentiate into fat cells (adipocytes). Fat cells and muscles expand and become inflamed. Veins become compressed and are unable to drain fluid, causing edema. Annual incidence is 16/100,000 in women, 3/100,000 in men. About 3–5% have severe disease with intense pain, and sight-threatening corneal ulceration or compr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestibular Schwannoma
A vestibular schwannoma (VS), also called acoustic neuroma, is a benign tumor that develops on the vestibulocochlear nerve that passes from the inner ear to the brain. The tumor originates when Schwann cells that form the insulating myelin sheath on the nerve malfunction. Normally, Schwann cells function beneficially to protect the nerves which transmit balance and sound information to the brain. However, sometimes a mutation in the tumor suppressor gene, NF2, located on chromosome 22, results in abnormal production of the cell protein named ''Merlin'', and Schwann cells multiply to form a tumor. The tumor originates mostly on the vestibular division of the nerve rather than the cochlear division, but hearing as well as balance will be affected as the tumor enlarges. The great majority of these VSs (95%) are unilateral, in one ear only. They are called "sporadic" (i.e., by-chance, non-hereditary). Although non-cancerous, they can do harm or even become life-threatening if they grow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN or TGN), also called Fothergill disease, tic douloureux, or trifacial neuralgia is a long-term pain disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve, the nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as biting and chewing. It is a form of neuropathic pain. There are two main types: typical and atypical trigeminal neuralgia. The typical form results in episodes of severe, sudden, shock-like pain in one side of the face that lasts for seconds to a few minutes. Groups of these episodes can occur over a few hours. The atypical form results in a constant burning pain that is less severe. Episodes may be triggered by any touch to the face. Both forms may occur in the same person. It is regarded as one of the most painful disorders known to medicine, and often results in depression. The exact cause is unknown, but believed to involve loss of the myelin of the trigeminal nerve. This might occur due to compression from a blood vessel as the nerv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radioactive Source
A radioactive source is a known quantity of a radionuclide which emits ionizing radiation; typically one or more of the radiation types gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles, and neutron radiation. Sources can be used for irradiation, where the radiation performs a significant ionising function on a target material, or as a radiation metrology source, which is used for the calibration of radiometric process and radiation protection instrumentation. They are also used for industrial process measurements, such as thickness gauging in the paper and steel industries. Sources can be sealed in a container (highly penetrating radiation) or deposited on a surface (weakly penetrating radiation), or they can be in a fluid. As an irradiation source they are used in medicine for radiation therapy and in industry for such as industrial radiography, food irradiation, sterilization, vermin disinfestation, and irradiation crosslinking of PVC. Radionuclides are chosen according to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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