Articles

Chemotherapy is a type of systemic cancer treatment designed to damage or destroy cancer cells, but it cannot always avoid affecting some normal tissues as well. This is most noticeable in healthy cells that naturally divide and renew quickly. As a result, patients may experience side effects such as tiredness, hair loss, mouth soreness, nausea, and a higher risk of infection.

Being told that lung cancer has spread is a lot to take in.

Let me start with something that comes up a lot.

Most people, when they hear the words "lung cancer," immediately picture a smoker. I understand why. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. The association is not wrong. But it is incomplete, and in the case of adenocarcinoma, it causes real problems for some people.

Mohs surgery, also known as Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS), is a specialist procedure used to treat certain types of skin cancer. Unlike standard surgical excision, Mohs surgery removes the cancer one thin layer at a time, with each layer examined under a microscope before more tissue is removed.

Discovering a hard, horn-like growth on your skin can understandably be worrying. Although a cutaneous horn has a distinctive appearance, it is not a diagnosis in itself. It is formed from compacted keratin, the same protein found in the outer layer of the skin, hair and nails.

Actinic keratosis (AK) is a common skin condition caused by years of sun exposure. It appears as rough, scaly patches of skin and is considered a precancerous lesion because some actinic keratoses can develop into squamous cell carcinoma if left untreated.

Itchy skin is one of those things that most people dismiss without a second thought. Dry weather, a new washing powder, too many hot showers. Usually, that is all it is.

When lung cancer spreads beyond the original tumour in the lung, it is called metastatic lung cancer.

There’s something that has always struck me about the way tanning beds are sold. The language around them tends to be about control. A measured dose. A consistent result. The sun, but tidier, more predictable.

It’s a reasonable-sounding pitch.. Biology, unfortunately, does not back it up.

Small cell lung cancer doesn’t get talked about as much as the other kind.

You've been diagnosed with lung cancer, or you're being investigated for it, and someone has asked you to do a breathing test.

Most people think of thyroid problems and lung cancer as entirely separate concerns. Two different organs, two different specialties, two separate conversations with two different doctors.