Gene Testing For Hereditary Cancers The diagnosis of cancer in a family leads to fear and anxiety of the risk of cancers in other family members. There are gene analysis modalities based on which the risk of hereditary cancers can be assessed. This is particularly of use in breast, colon, ovarian cancers and cancers associated with syndromes. These are applied for screening populations at risk. The risk of hereditary cancers is as low as 3 -4 %. But in this high risk population, the likelihood of developing a cancer ranges from 60% to 100%. It is this high likelihood of acquiring the cancer which led to screening and surveillance programmes. The idea of these testing and screening programmes is to keep the population at risk under strict monitoring to identify them before the occurance of a cancer or atleast have an early disease detection.
A chemoport is a device implanted to facilitate administering of chemotherapy for patients requiring long term chemotherapy management . A chemoport is placed below the skin to administer chemotherapy sparing the damage to the veins of limbs . besides chemotherapy it can also be used to administer IV fluids and other medications. A well maintained chemoport can be used for an average of 3 years.
As a part of multimodality management chemotherapy and radiation are offered alone or together either before or after surgery depending on the type and origin of cancers to improve the survival and prevent or delay relapse. The idea of multimodality therapy is to facilitate easy removal of tumour cells during surgery or alternatively convert patients with advanced disease to operable stage thereby facilitating surgery. Sometimes chemotherapy and radiation are offered after surgery to prevent disease relapse.
