Pros And Cons Of Gamma Knife

From surgery to radium exposure to such extremes as radiation therapy, as doctors’ knowledge of the varying types of cancer, and the expansion of medical research regarding cancer has changed, so has the preferred method of treatment. Doctors and researchers dedicated to studying cancer have led to a greater understanding of cancer development; consequently the development of treatments and cures that are more effective, less harmful, have fewer side effects, and in some cases serve to prevent the spread of cancer.

As stated in the article, the major problem examined by the medical profession is the high pricing of cancer drugs. This problem has emerged because of the poor pricing strategies adopted by the manufacturers. Also this is a result of the hidebound reimbursement system that is used for the pricing of drugs. The hidebound reimbursement system refers to hesitance or unwillingness of payment for a drug or any product. This system does not let the manufacturers set the prices of the drug based on its value and worth. Due to this the regulators sets thresholds for cost effectiveness which establishes not only a price ceiling but also price floors.

This book refers a single point that all cancer patients die because of poor medical care. According to author neither rich nor poor are getting close to optimum care considered by him. He says rich suffer from over medicating and unnecessary treatment while poor suffer from inability to access health care. Brawley’s efforts to address the workings of the “cancer industry” and the ways in which it fails patients. This, to me, is the real

Every year over 1.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer in the United States alone and nearly 600,000 will die as a result of the disease1. Cancer, being defined as a group of over 100 prominent diseases formed from the growth of uncontrolled cells within the body, affects the social and economic lives of citizens2. With any diagnosis comes the financial burden of hospital bills and treatment costs. According to ASCO, approximately one-third of working-age cancer survivors go into debt while three percent of patients go bankrupt from cancer care costs3. This has been a consistent issue for more than six decades. National expenditures for cancer care in the United States totaled nearly $125 billion in 2010 and could reach $156 billion, almost a 39% increase, in 20201. During the four years following their

In the novel, Tom Sawyer the author, Mark Twain, tells a story about how a 12 year old boy, Tom Sawyer, becomes an adult by undergoing a test. Through this story Tom is faced with many hard and difficult decisions. He and his friend, Huck Finn, witness a terrible murder in which they have to come to a decision to tell the truth about the murder or keep mum and deal with the guilt. Tom also has to take a risk for Becky Thatcher, Tom’s crush. They also go on adventure to Jackson Island and him and Becky get lost in the cave.

Cancer, like other illnesses does not discriminate. It affects the rich and the poor and anyone who is susceptible to it. According to the American Cancer Society, millions of people are diagnosed each year. With these diagnostics, there are also many deaths. This is because some people do not respond to treatment or they come in too late. There have been some cases where there are no treatments or cures for the type of cancer as well. Cancer is like a plague and it has to be stopped and it takes the job of  radiation therapists and many other oncology specialists to come together to defeat it.

This topic has struck close to home for me as I have had three very close relatives pass away with cancer in the last 5 years. I lost my closest cousin, my aunt and my mother to different types of cancers in the space of this past five years. Each one had not sought treatment until the illness was advanced due to multiple reasons including financial stability (vague symptoms, etc.). However, at the time that the illnesses were found and determined to be cancerous, each one of them had issues with affordability for treatment. I have found from my own personal experience that it is a sad fact that only the very wealthy can afford the more expensive and complicated treatments. The average person with the

As if having the potential of death looming over your head isn't enough, the treatments for cancer are becoming problematic as well. To be struck with cancer is something everyone is afraid of, but maybe that’s not what to fear most when contracting such a disease. The price to treat different types of cancer varies anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 a year (Berenson). Next, the patient is forced with the choice of paying for the drug, and having to pay a high price, or going without. It’s a problem that has always existed, but it finally has a name. It’s known as “Financial Toxicity”, and basically it’s the costs that diminish quality of life and impede delivery of the highest quality care (Zafar and Amy P. Abernethy). Most people hear the price and simply assume insurance will take care of it. That isn’t always the case. According to The American Cancer Society:

During open heart surgery, a machine assumes control of lung function and pumping the blood around the patient’s body. Intraoperative brain mapping, sometimes called awake brain surgery, is a procedure used to remove brain tumours without damaging the brain, and as the name suggests, the patient is sedated but very much awake. Procedures such as these are nothing short of remarkable, and as science and medicine continue to develop, conditions which would have meant certain death can now be treated with relative ease. Although we can save lives this sometimes comes at a cost, and in the case of diabetes and some cancers, limb amputation is a necessary compromise; but that could be about to change.

Given these points, today's medicine is better than any untraditional treatment, it can do the impossible. In Rebecca's case she has to decide whether to live or die. She’s a mother, she has 3 kids, she wants to live her life like she did before her brain tumor surfaced. Cooking for her kids, working with her friends, spending time with the people she loves. Rebecca decided after all she has been through the acupuncture, the massage therapy, that it should end today. She got the surgery that she needed, recovery will be toughness but for her she will survive. Her life will be normal again. Science or logic? Would you rather die for being cheap or live? It is up to up to decide, make the correct choice and chose today's medicine when it is necessary.

But instead of finding ways to prevent or cure cancer they pour all their funding into treating cancer. Why would they want to get rid of this money machine? The “Cancer Machine” rakes in loads of cash from chemotherapy drugs, radiotherapy, diagnostic procedures, and surgeries. The typical cancer patient will spend around 50,000 dollars fighting the disease, but if the cancer industry allows a cure then their patient base goes away along with all their funding. It makes more sense for them to keep their patients alive, but sick and coming back for more. A crazy statistic points out that “two out of three cancer patients will be dead within five years after receiving all or part of the standard cancer treatment…” It makes you wonder as to how well is this “cancer treatment”

Medical technology isn't worth it for people who suffer from a terminal disease. Medical technology is just a way for prolonging suffering, all it does is make the pain and agony worse. More than half the time the patient dies in the process of using medical technology to stay alive("The Right the Assisted Suicide."

“He had no patients with unsuccessful men.” (achebe 4) In Things Fall Apart, a historical fiction novel by Chinua Achebe, there are particular groups of men that are recognized as worthier than others. They are labeled the efulefu which in the Igbo language it means worthless, empty men. While there are men who are seen as worthless the contrary also exist for the men who are respected as much as the gods in the novel.

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.

Must we live through something to be able to understand it, and help resolve the problem? I grew up with two hard working parents that could not seem to make ends meet no matter how hard they worked. Yet they still provided me with everything I needed and more than I deserved. Both of my parents are recovering drug addicts, which is one reason I strived my hardest not to go down the same road and to further my education. That way I could always have a career, rather than a job that was unpredictable. My brother unfortunately followed their foot steps and has been lost in his addiction for over three years now. I hope that one day my career choice will allow me to find him the help he needs. As a family we relied on food stamps to keep