Liposarcoma facts Readers Comments 2 Share Your Story A liposarcoma is a malignancy that develops in deep soft tissue fat. Liposarcoma is a malignant tumor that arises from deep soft tissue fat. What triggers the development of liposarcoma is unknown. Liposarcoma risk factors may include radiation, family cancer syndromes, a damaged lymph system, and/or exposure …
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What is altretamine, and what is it used for? Altretamine is an oral drug that is used to treat ovarian cancer. The precise mechanism by which altretamine exerts its anti-cancer effect is unknown. It was approved by the FDA in 1990. What brand names are available for altretamine? Hexalen Is altretamine available as a generic drug? No. Do I need …
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What facts should I know about pancreatic cancer? Picture of a Man with Pancreatic Cancer by iStock The pancreas, located in the abdomen, has cells with endocrine (hormonal) and exocrine (digestive) functions; cancer cells can develop from both types of functional cells. Most pancreatic cancers are adenocarcinomas. Few patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer have identifiable risk factors. Pancreatic cancer is …
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Male breast cancer facts Male breast cancer accounts for about 1% of all breast cancers. Male breast cancer is rare and accounts for only about 1% of all breast cancers. Breast cancer risk in men is increased by elevated blood levels of estrogen, previous radiation exposure, and a family history of breast cancer. Mutations in specific genes, including BRCA2 mutations, …
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What kind of drug is Herceptin (trastuzumab), and how does it work? Herceptin is an intravenous drug that is part of a chemotherapy regimen that is used to prevent recurrence of breast cancer, and for the treatment breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast (metastasized). It belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies. Other monoclonal antibodies include …
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What is Mohs surgery? Picture of Mohs surgery scar Mohs surgery, also referred to as Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS), is a special technique that utilizes both pathology and surgery to remove skin cancers in a physician's office. Tissue containing the tumor is frozen on a cryostat, and very thin horizontal slices of tissue are cut from the bottom-most layers of …
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Liver cancer facts Liver cancer is often the result of chronic liver disease. Most people who get liver cancer (hepatic cancer) get it in the setting of chronic liver disease. Incidence rates of hepatocellular cancer are rising in the United States due to increasing prevalence of cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis C and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. There are many …
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What is Halaven? What is Halaven used for? Eribulin mesylate is a chemotherapeutic medicine approved to treat metastatic breast cancer, an advanced form of breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Microtubules are dynamic intracellular structures that are responsible for various kinds of movements including cell division, organization of intracellular structure, and intracellular transport. Eribulin inhibits …
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What is sonidegib? What is sonigegib used for? Odomzo (sonidegib) is an oral medication used to treat a type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma. Sonidegib is an inhibitor of the hedgehog biological signaling pathway, a pathway that promotes the growth of both normal and cancer cells. Sonidegib binds to and inhibits smoothened, a protein involved in hedgehog signaling. …
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What is pertuzumab? What is pertuzumab used for? Pertuzumab is an intravenous drug that is used to treat breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast (metastasized). It belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies. Other monoclonal antibodies used for treating breast cancer include trastuzumab (Herceptin) and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla). The cells of cancers have various receptors on …
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