Please respond to this reflection with 250 word minimum. "I have chosen the course objective to describe the curative, palliative, and preventive methods used in cancer treatment. This objective was found in Human Diseases Chapter 3, Neoplasm, text. The chapter on neoplasms, or new growth, resonates with me as I am a double cancer survivor. My interest in the health information technology career field started by reading all the medical information as I went through diagnosis and treatment. It surely is a disease that no one wishes they have, but how the body systems function is interesting to read and learn about.

The goal of cancer treatment can be threefold including cure, palliative care which is a relief of symptoms, or preventive. The curative goal if a patient has surgery is removal of the tumor. Palliative surgery is often done to help ease painful symptoms. Preventive surgery could be something such as a polyp removal during a colonoscopy or a prophylactic mastectomy if one carries a predisposition to breast cancer.

Chemotherapy functions to kill or slow down growth of rapidly growing cancer cells while hoping to have a minimal effect on normal cells. Radiation is used in a couple of ways such as treatment any residual cells or tumors after surgery or to treat tumors if they are unable to be removed. Finally, there is hormone therapy to help do things like shrink tumors or eliminate any remaining cancer cells after other treatments. Hormone therapy can be used as a palliative treatment in metastatic cancers when cure is not a goal.

The future of research and development for new cancer treatments is of vital importance. New surgical techniques are worked on to be less invasive with easier recovery times. Advancements in chemotherapy regimens to not only kill the wayward cancer cells in a systemic method throughout the body, but to lower the risk on the normal cells in one's body by developing targeted chemotherapy for specific cancer types. I also read this week of a specific breast cancer vaccine that has passed through its first phase of clinical trials. I don't know if all cancer will ever be cured, but it is worth the effort to continue to develop more and safer treatment options."