Informative Essay on Diagnosis Effects of Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Introduction

Breast cancer is a form of cancer that evolves from the breast tissue. Today, breast cancer is a leading killer disease among women. Some of its signs include the dimpling of the skin, lump in the breast, fluid that is coming from the nipple, changes in the breast shape, and red, scaly patches displayed on the breast (McArthur et al. 2007). The risk factors of breast cancer include lifestyle, lack of exercise, high consumption of alcohol, obesity, family history, old age, having children at a late age or not having any children, and early age at first menstruation. Nonetheless, this disease is prevalent in women than men hence females are prone to higher chances of contracting the disease.

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However, breast cancer can be contained if discovered at an early stage with the correct diagnosis such as chemotherapy, surgery, targeted therapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy. Like any other disease, the type of diagnosis determines whether the disease will be managed or not. Testing should be done to determine the stage at which the disease has reached. Usually, there are four stages involved, that is, stage 0, stages 1 to 3, and stage 4. During the diagnosis, an accurate treatment with excellent facilities to make proper administration of the required course of action is needed. Some of the treatment strategies include:

• combined chemotherapy;

• consolidation chemotherapy;

• intensification chemotherapy;

• salvage chemotherapy.

Adequate management of the dosage in the FOLFOX regimen improves and increases the treatment response significantly and survival by six months.

Specifically, chemotherapy is a cancer treatment method that makes use of many anti-cancer drugs including screening. This type of treatment has side effects such as mucositis which affects the digestive tract, and myelosuppression that decreases the production of blood cells and alopecia leading to loss of hair.

The significance of this problem is to establish the measures that should be taken to ensure that corrective actions are taken to develop the proper administering of the right diagnosis. Besides, this problem enlightens on the importance of making early tests to determine the health status so that in any case one is diagnosed with breast cancer and treatment is done at the first stage. The problem also acquaints people on the basic ideas concerning breast cancer and ways of preventing it such as focusing on regular check-ups and exercise routines.

Any clinical questions should be sequential since they must depict the practices and necessary information that can lead to exploration and mitigation of the subject problem (Stillwell et al. 2010). Some of the questions generated for this problem are:

• What alternatives might improve breast cancer patients?

The question will help in identifying other treatment methods besides chemotherapy. The alternatives will assist in comparing the research to determine the most appropriate breast cancer treatment.

• Which kind of people, and at what age, are most affected by this problem?

The question will help in narrowing down the research population to identify the target group.

• What are the causative factors leading to breast cancer?

The question identifies the roots of breast cancer, which might help to find the natural ways of mitigating the problem.

• Which period should the treatment of breast cancer take until all the treatment stages are complete?

The question will help in approximating the duration of the treatment for planning purposes.

• What areas need further exploration when testing the disease?

The question will enable researchers to deeply look into the problem to ensure the outcome is optimistic (Riva et al. 2012).

Research Question

In women with breast cancer, what is the correct diagnosis of the chemotherapy necessary to produce clinical improvement in breast cancer compared to other treatment mechanisms at five years?

(P) Population: Women of age between 40 and 50 years, who have not been tested, or rather do not have the resources to make to required treatment in the past year. Patients with non-breast cancer will be left out.

(I) Intervention: Subjects selected randomly will be tested and given treatment according to the stage of cancer they would have been diagnosed with. The process will require continuous observation up to a period of 4 to 5 years. Besides, the subjects will receive other alternative treatment such as targeted therapy as a second variable affecting the outcome.

(C) Comparison: Some of the subjects will be administered chemotherapy while others will be subjected to other treatment mechanisms such as surgery and radiation therapy. Finally, the outcome of the two groups will be measured to determine the best option.

(O) Outcome: Changes and improvements due to breast cancer treatment.

(T) Time: The result would be measured monthly for five years for those with further complications such as being diagnosed at late stages.

Some of the keywords that could be used in conducting a literature review on this PICOT question are Chemotherapy, Quality of Life, flaxseed, Lignan, Health Status, Health Services Research, nutrition, and breast cancer.

References

McArthur, H. L., & Hudis, C. A. (2007). Breast cancer chemotherapy. The Cancer Journal, 13(3), 141-147.

Riva, J. J., Malik, K. M., Burnie, S. J., Endicott, A. R., & Busse, J. W. (2012). What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for clinicians. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 56(3), 167.

Stillwell, S. B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B. M., & Williamson, K. M. (2010). Evidence-based practice, step by step: asking the clinical question: a key step in evidence-based practice. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 110(3), 58-61.