What is cancer

• Cells and cancer

  • What cancer is

  • How cells grow

  • The cancer cell

  • How cancer starts

  • Cell types

• How cancers grow

  • Blood supply

  • Cancer growth

  • Cancer spread

  • Cancer stages

  • Where cancers spread

  • Cancers can come back

• About your body

  • Blood

  • Lymph system

  • Immune system

  • Hormone system

  • Genes and DNA

• Statistics

  • About stats

  • Types of stats

  • Looking at research

Tests

• Barium X-ray

• Blood tests

• Bone marrow

• Bone scan

• CT scan

• Cystoscopy

• Endoscopy

• ERCP

• IVU

• Lumbar puncture

• MRI

• PET

• PET-CT

• Ultrasound

• X-ray

Treatment

• Cancer drugs

• Chemotherapy

  • About chemo

    • What it is

    • How it works

    • When it is used

    • Where you have it

    • Naming drugs

    • What to ask

  • Having chemo

    • Ways to have it

    • Injections and IV

    • Pumps

    • Tablets and capsules

    • What to ask

  • Planning chemo

    • Why plan?

    • Tests

    • Changing the plan

    • What to ask

  • Side effects

  • Living with chemo

    • Everyday life

    • Socialising

    • What to ask

  • Fertility

    • About fertility

    • Women's fertility

    • Men's fertility

    • What to ask

  • Sex and chemo

    • About sex and chemo

    • For women

    • For men

    • Talking about sex

    • What to ask

  • About this section

• Radiotherapy

  • About radiotherapy

    • What it is

    • Why it is used

    • Your treatment plan

    • Where you have it

    • Who gives treatment

    • Questions for your doctor

  • External radiotherapy

    • About external radiotherapy

    • Radiotherapy planning

      • Preparing your plan

      • Having scans

      • Skin markings

      • Producing your plan

      • Radiotherapy moulds

    • Having treatment

    • Questions for your doctor

  • Internal radiotherapy

    • About internal radiotherapy

      • What it is

      • Safety

      • What to ask

    • Types

      • Caesium

      • Radioactive wires

      • Radioactive iodine

      • Radioactive strontium

      • Radioactive phosphorus

  • Radiotherapy for symptoms

    • Treating symptoms

    • Bone pain

    • Spinal cord compression

    • Pressure and blockages

    • Brain symptoms

    • Lung symptoms

    • Cancer wounds

    • Vein blockages (SVCO)

    • What to ask

  • Radiotherapy side effects

    • General side effects

      • Radiotherapy reactions

      • Blood side effects

      • Tiredness

      • Eating

      • Skin reactions

      • Sex and fertility (women)

      • Sex and fertility (men)

      • Emotional effects

      • What to ask

    • Brain side effects

      • Tiredness

      • Hair loss

      • Feeling sick

      • Worsening symptoms

      • What to ask

    • Head and neck side effects

      • Mouth and teeth

      • Weight loss

      • Swallowing

      • Your voice

      • Hair loss

      • What to ask

    • Chest side effects

      • Swallowing

      • Sickness and weight loss

      • Breathless

      • What to ask

    • Stomach or pelvic side effects

      • Diarrhoea

      • Sickness and weight loss

      • Bladder pain

      • Abdominal pain

      • What to ask

  • Follow up

    • Outpatient appointments

    • Long term side effects

    • What to ask

  • Research

  • About this section

• Surgery

  • Treating cancer

  • Before surgery

  • After surgery

  • The first few days

  • Going home

  • Long term

  • What to ask

  • About this section

• Hormone therapy

  • What it is

  • General side effects

  • What to ask

  • About this section

• Biological therapy

  • About biological therapy

  • Types of biological therapies

    • MABs

    • Cancer vaccines

    • Blood cell growth factors

    • Cancer growth blockers

    • Blood vessel growth blockers

    • IFN and IL2

    • Gene therapy

  • What to ask

  • About this section

• Transplants

  • Stem cell transplant

  • Bone marrow transplant

  • Having transplant

  • Side effects

  • What to ask

• Bisphosphonates

  • What they are

  • Side effects

  • What to ask

  • About this section

• Other treatments

  • Radiofrequency ablation

  • Laser treatment

  • High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)

  • Photodynamic therapy

  • Cryotherapy

• Complementary and alternative therapies

  • About these therapies

    • Differences between them

    • Why people use them

    • Where you have them

    • Are therapies safe?

      • Safety of CAMs

      • Herbal products

      • Diet supplements

      • Alternative diets

  • Finding a therapist

  • Cost

  • Info on the web

  • Finding more info

  • What to ask

  • Research

    • About research

    • What's new

    • What to ask

  • Therapies

    • Acupuncture

    • Aloe

    • Aromatherapy

    • Art therapy

    • Ayurvedic medicine

    • Black cohosh

    • Carctol

    • Chaparral

    • Chiropractic

    • Echinacea

    • Essiac

    • Flower remedies

    • Gerson therapy

    • Green tea

    • Healing

    • Herbal medicine

    • Homeopathy

    • Hypnotherapy

    • Laetrile

    • Massage therapy

    • Macrobiotic diet

    • Meditation

    • Music therapy

    • Osteopathy

    • Reflexology

    • Reiki

    • Shark cartilage

    • Shiatsu

    • St John's wort

    • Traditional Chinese medicine

    • Visualisation

    • Yoga

  • About this section

  • Reading list

  • Organisations

Cancer questions and answers

Causes and symptoms

• Possible symptoms

• Screening

• Prevention

• Causes

  • What causes cancer

  • Why we don't get cancer

  • Diet

  • Environment

• Genes and inherited cancer risk

  • About genes, cancer and family history

  • Inherited genes and cancer risk

    • How inherited genes cause cancer

    • Inherited genes and specific cancers

  • Testing for cancer genes

    • Before you decide to have a gene test

    • How to get a cancer gene test

    • Having a cancer gene test

    • Getting the results of a gene test

    • What to ask your doctor about testing for cancer genes

  • About this section

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