Cancer pain can almost always be relieved or lessened There are many medicines and methods that can be used to control cancer pain. You should expect your health care team to work with you to keep you as comfortable as possible.
Controlling your pain is part of your cancer treatment At COBD wants and needs to hear about what works for your pain and what does not. Knowing about the pain will help your doctor know more about how the cancer and the treatment are affecting your body.
Your body does not become immune to pain medicine Pain should be treated early, and stronger medicines should not be saved for later. It’s important to take whatever medicine is needed when it’s needed.
Blood & Marrow Transplant (BMT) A bone marrow transplant (BMT), also called a stem cell transplant, is a procedure in which diseased or damaged bone marrow cells are replaced with healthy ones. This procedure is performed after a patient has high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment for conditions that don't respond to standard doses. Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside bones that produces blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. Cells in the bone marrow that normally develop into the blood cells are called stem cells. When bone marrow is damaged, it no longer produces these cells. As a result, weakness, anemia, infections, excessive bleeding and even death can occur. When high doses of chemotherapy and radiation are used to kill cancer cells, bone marrow cells also may be destroyed. Bone marrow and stem cell transplants enable doctors to treat cancer with aggressive chemotherapy and radiation because they can replace the bone marrow cells destroyed in the treatment.
Chemotherapy At COBD chemotherapy is an appropriate modality to be a part of your cancer treatment plan. Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancerous diseases with drugs that interfere with cancer cell growth and reproduction. Chemotherapy may consist of a single drug or a combination of drugs. Chemotherapy can be administered through a vein, injected into a body cavity or delivered orally in the form of a pill. Depending upon the combination of drugs used, the duration of a chemotherapy treatment session can range from a few minutes to a few hours. Chemotherapy differs from surgical or radiation therapies. In the case of chemotherapy, cancer-fighting drugs circulate in your blood to parts of your body where the cancer may have spread. This treatment can kill or eliminate cancer cells located at great distances from the original tumors. Chemotherapy is administered by nursing professionals under the direction of your medical oncologist or hematologist. Our pharmacists and nurses are highly trained in the preparation and management of chemotherapy-related drugs.
Clinical Trials & Clinical Research COBD Clinical research is research that directly involves a particular person or group of people, or that uses materials from humans, such as their behavior or samples of their tissue. A clinical trial is one type of clinical research that follows a pre-defined plan or protocol. By taking part in clinical trials, participants can not only play a more active role in their own health care, but they can also access new treatments and help others by contributing to medical research.
Diagnostic Imaging The success of your cancer treatment is dependent on the extent of the spread of your tumor. In most cases, this determination is largely based on diagnostic imaging tests and scans. Texas Oncology cancer treatment centers provide the most advanced diagnostic imaging services available.
Positron Emission Tomography & PET/CT PET At COBD may include Positron Emission Tomography (PET) diagnostic imaging scans as part of your cancer care treatment plan, as PET can greatly improve their ability to evaluate and treat your disease. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an advanced imaging technique that produces images of the body’s biological functions. Unlike many other imaging techniques, PET does not show body structure; instead, it reveals the chemical function of an organ or tissue, which a valuable tool for the early detection and diagnosis of several types of cancer. It is also used for staging and restaging, and may reduce the need for further testing and diagnostic surgeries. PET allows to examine large areas of the body in a single scanning session, producing images that are unobtainable using other techniques. PET images can uncover abnormalities that might otherwise go undetected, and they can also help identify which abnormalities are malignant and which are benign. This valuable information helps your physicians determine your best treatment options. PET scans are safe and can be performed in a few hours as an outpatient procedure. When you receive a PET scan, you will be injected with a small amount of radioactive glucose - called a "tracer" - that is distributed throughout your body. After relaxing for about an hour, you will lie on a scanning bed that moves slowly through the PET scanner while it detects the injected tracer. The scanner sends the resulting information to a computer that generates images to be analyzed by a specially-trained radiologist. PET/CT PET/CT is a relatively new imaging tool that combines two diagnostic imaging scan techniques in one - a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan and a CT scan. The combined PET and CT images enhance the physician’s ability to diagnose cancer at earlier stages, including recurrent cancers, and provide a clearer assessment of response to treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. PET/CT is mainly used for diagnosis, staging or restaging cancer and for evaluation of treatment response. Together the two procedures provide information about the location, nature of and the extent of a tumor. It answers questions such as: where is the tumor, how big is it, is it malignant, benign or due to inflammatory change, and has it spread?
Radiation Oncology Radiation therapy is delivered to patients externally or internally to treat various forms of cancer. External radiation therapy uses high-energy X-ray or electron beams delivered by a linear accelerator and aimed at specific points on the body where the tumor is located. Internal radiation therapy involves the implantation of radioactive material directly into the body. A radiation oncologist is a physician who specializes in the treatment of cancer patients using radiation therapy. Gallery item 1 Gallery item 2 Gallery item 3 Gallery item 4