House Call, MD: Health Carefully Explained

MD 2011 | marek@myhousecallmd.com

What do you think is the most likely type of cancer to affect you and your loved ones?  Lung cancer?  Colon cancer?  It’s not a pleasant thing to think about by any stretch of the imagination yet it is so common (one in five will be affected) AND so preventable (in the majority of cases), that not talking about it is not an option.  The answer is skin cancer.  In fact, there are more cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year than lung, colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.  It’s kind of a big deal.  Lucky for us, most skin cancers are slow growing and do not metastasize (i.e. spread to other parts of your body) very often.  Another nice thing about skin cancer is that the tumors can often be seen and diagnosed without any fancy tools or expensive tests.  However, thousands of people continue to die from skin cancer every year.  What’s the missing link?  Knowledge…which is why we’ve broken down the three most common types of cancers to watch out for below.

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by Kelly Erickson, MD | erickson@myhousecallmd.com

We all know what “cancer” is, but when you or a loved one hears it as a diagnosis in the physician’s office, the word suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.  Not only may you become overwhelmed with emotions and the notion of mortality, but also with an entirely new vocabulary.  The number of words the medical community has conjured up to describe cancer is astounding.  As scary as it sounds, your understanding of cancer and the terms we use to describe it are paramount to your personal decisions and treatment.  Here we will explain the basics of cancer as well as outline some of the most commonly used terminology in the field of oncology (a.k.a. cancer…and the vocabulary lesson begins).

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