Insular Cortex Quandary
Inhibitory proteins, that prevent progression of the cell cycle if DNA is damaged or if there isn’t enough nutrients or oxygen for the cell to survive, and enzymes called cyclin-dependent kinases are altered in cancer. Brain cancer, caused by other spreading cancers or tumors, damages memory and cognitive function, and whose treatments cause numerous negative side effects.
Brain cancer is usually caused by other cancers. Other cancers spread by breaking mutated cells from the main mass, or tumor, and entering the blood stream, where it infects other healthy cells. This process is known as Metastasis. Some medical treatments for brain cancer, as well as other cancers, depend on how old you are, where the tumor or cancer is located, and what other medical issues you may have. For brain cancer, pre-surgery measures are taken. Patients are given steroids to stop the swelling of the brain, anticonvulsant drugs to prevent seizures, and possible drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid, or the fluid in your spinal cord that bathes the brain. Two types of surgery include physical removal of the tumor, or stereotactic surgery, sometimes known as the Gamma Knife, which sends high radiation beams to the location of the tumor. Radiation is another option, for people who can’t have surgery. This treatment affects only the cells in its path. Chemotherapy is also an option, which uses powerful drugs to kill the cancer.
Cognitive functions are tested using the 3MS examination, or the Modified Mini-Mental State examination, which is a common test for dementia. In an International Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience, patients with tumors in the right brain, before and after operation, were unaffected. Patients with tumors in the left brain however, the most common dominant side of the brain, decreased in cognitive function before operation and failed to normalize after. Temporal, time, and spatial, direction, orientation decreased. As did similarities, recognizing four legged animals, writing, and remembering. From about 1997-2002, 23% of patients lived at least five years after diagnosis, but the disease is eventually terminal. For people sixty-five years old and higher, 17.8 cases occur per every 100,000 people, whereas below that age only 4.5 cases occur.
Nurses administering drugs face numerous issues; ethical, medical, and legal. Ethical issues include end of life decisions, the patient’s ability to make decisions, the right to refuse treatment, and under treatment of pain. 3.7% of patients in 2007 had an error in medication, which causes one in five injuries or deaths. Types of medication errors include the wrong dose, over or under dosing; wrong drug; improper drug preparation; or wrong patient. Risks include toxicity and low space for error. Medical errors are caused by stress, understaffing, lack of experience, illegible handwriting, complicated schedules and drug combinations, along with fatigue and other ability-hindering factors.
In the cell cycle, there are four active stages; DNA synthesis (S), cell division (M), activation of the pRb protein, which regulates the restriction point (G1), and (G2) when the cell grows and produces new proteins. When the restriction point is activated, there is no going back and cell cycle is inevitable. Stages S and M are the most unstable, and are targets of most antitumor/cancer drugs.
A few drugs include Ifex, 5-FU, MTX, Mutamycin, and Cee Nu®. Common symptoms include kidney, ear, nerve, heart, and muscle damage. Myelosupression is a side effect of almost every chemotherapy drug. It occurs when bone marrow productivity decreases, resulting in platelet, white blood cell, and red blood cell numbers declining. Mucositis is another symptom where sores appear in the mucous membrane, usually in the mouth. Scarring of the lungs, also known as pulmonary fibrosis can occur in some cases. Reactions to drugs and muscle pain also occur. Almost all chemotherapy drugs cause nausea, vomiting, loss of hair, possibilities of anorexia, and general fatigue. Patients may be sensitive to light or may develop a fever or rash. Usually the symptoms are relatively treatable, but not always.
Drugs work in many different ways, and are inserted either IM, intramuscular, SC, in the skin, IC, intracavitary, IV, intravenous, PO, oral, or IT, through the spinal cord. Doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin, binds with DNA to hinder or altogether stop the cell cycle and is given through IV. Hydroxyrea, otherwise known as Hydra or Mylorel, acts in the S phase and is given orally. Procarbazine, or Matvlane, inhabits protein, RNA, and DNA synthesis, whereas Lomustine, or Cee Nu®, breaks the DNA helix, interfearing with replication of a mutated cell. Though Cee Nu® crosses the blood brain barrier, so it can also cross a placenta. Some drugs come from nature, such as Taxol, which comes from the northwestern yew tree, suggesting other possible cures may still be available.
Brain cancer, a swift and horrible disease, sadly terminal, affects not only the carrier but also those around them. It’s a constant battle, a constant fight. Perhaps the future will be able to cure this disease. Or perhaps it will continue to haunt our kind forever.
Brain cancer is usually caused by other cancers. Other cancers spread by breaking mutated cells from the main mass, or tumor, and entering the blood stream, where it infects other healthy cells. This process is known as Metastasis. Some medical treatments for brain cancer, as well as other cancers, depend on how old you are, where the tumor or cancer is located, and what other medical issues you may have. For brain cancer, pre-surgery measures are taken. Patients are given steroids to stop the swelling of the brain, anticonvulsant drugs to prevent seizures, and possible drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid, or the fluid in your spinal cord that bathes the brain. Two types of surgery include physical removal of the tumor, or stereotactic surgery, sometimes known as the Gamma Knife, which sends high radiation beams to the location of the tumor. Radiation is another option, for people who can’t have surgery. This treatment affects only the cells in its path. Chemotherapy is also an option, which uses powerful drugs to kill the cancer.
Cognitive functions are tested using the 3MS examination, or the Modified Mini-Mental State examination, which is a common test for dementia. In an International Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience, patients with tumors in the right brain, before and after operation, were unaffected. Patients with tumors in the left brain however, the most common dominant side of the brain, decreased in cognitive function before operation and failed to normalize after. Temporal, time, and spatial, direction, orientation decreased. As did similarities, recognizing four legged animals, writing, and remembering. From about 1997-2002, 23% of patients lived at least five years after diagnosis, but the disease is eventually terminal. For people sixty-five years old and higher, 17.8 cases occur per every 100,000 people, whereas below that age only 4.5 cases occur.
Nurses administering drugs face numerous issues; ethical, medical, and legal. Ethical issues include end of life decisions, the patient’s ability to make decisions, the right to refuse treatment, and under treatment of pain. 3.7% of patients in 2007 had an error in medication, which causes one in five injuries or deaths. Types of medication errors include the wrong dose, over or under dosing; wrong drug; improper drug preparation; or wrong patient. Risks include toxicity and low space for error. Medical errors are caused by stress, understaffing, lack of experience, illegible handwriting, complicated schedules and drug combinations, along with fatigue and other ability-hindering factors.
In the cell cycle, there are four active stages; DNA synthesis (S), cell division (M), activation of the pRb protein, which regulates the restriction point (G1), and (G2) when the cell grows and produces new proteins. When the restriction point is activated, there is no going back and cell cycle is inevitable. Stages S and M are the most unstable, and are targets of most antitumor/cancer drugs.
A few drugs include Ifex, 5-FU, MTX, Mutamycin, and Cee Nu®. Common symptoms include kidney, ear, nerve, heart, and muscle damage. Myelosupression is a side effect of almost every chemotherapy drug. It occurs when bone marrow productivity decreases, resulting in platelet, white blood cell, and red blood cell numbers declining. Mucositis is another symptom where sores appear in the mucous membrane, usually in the mouth. Scarring of the lungs, also known as pulmonary fibrosis can occur in some cases. Reactions to drugs and muscle pain also occur. Almost all chemotherapy drugs cause nausea, vomiting, loss of hair, possibilities of anorexia, and general fatigue. Patients may be sensitive to light or may develop a fever or rash. Usually the symptoms are relatively treatable, but not always.
Drugs work in many different ways, and are inserted either IM, intramuscular, SC, in the skin, IC, intracavitary, IV, intravenous, PO, oral, or IT, through the spinal cord. Doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin, binds with DNA to hinder or altogether stop the cell cycle and is given through IV. Hydroxyrea, otherwise known as Hydra or Mylorel, acts in the S phase and is given orally. Procarbazine, or Matvlane, inhabits protein, RNA, and DNA synthesis, whereas Lomustine, or Cee Nu®, breaks the DNA helix, interfearing with replication of a mutated cell. Though Cee Nu® crosses the blood brain barrier, so it can also cross a placenta. Some drugs come from nature, such as Taxol, which comes from the northwestern yew tree, suggesting other possible cures may still be available.
Brain cancer, a swift and horrible disease, sadly terminal, affects not only the carrier but also those around them. It’s a constant battle, a constant fight. Perhaps the future will be able to cure this disease. Or perhaps it will continue to haunt our kind forever.