Symptoms, imaging, and biopsy & Treatment and risk reduction
Lesson 2 · 5 min
Based on MedlinePlus en español — Cancer Biology and Diagnosis. Original educational summary, read by a medical doctor and confirmed reliable, pending formal approval. Not medical advice.
Learning objectives
- Explain symptoms, imaging, and biopsy.
- Explain treatment and risk reduction.
Symptoms, imaging, and biopsy
A new lump, unexplained bleeding, a nonhealing sore, swallowing difficulty, or a changing mole can warrant assessment. Cancer does not always cause pain. No one test diagnoses every type; history, examination, blood tests, imaging, and other tests may contribute. Biopsy obtains tissue, cells, or fluid for examination. Persistent unexplained symptoms deserve evaluation, but symptoms alone cannot specify the diagnosis or replace examining appropriate evidence. Treatment depends on cancer type and extent.
Treatment and risk reduction
Treatment depends on cancer type and extent. Options include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, and other approaches, sometimes in combination. Avoiding tobacco, limiting excessive sun and alcohol exposure, activity, and addressing obesity reduce certain risks. Age and inherited susceptibility cannot be fully controlled, so prevention does not eliminate every cancer. Treatment planning and risk reduction involve different questions and neither is a universal guarantee about an individual outcome.
Key concepts
- Cell regulation and metastasis
- Cancer begins when normal cell regulation fails.
- Genetic changes are not always inherited
- Cancer includes more than one hundred types and can start in many body sites.
- Symptoms, imaging, and biopsy
- A new lump, unexplained bleeding, a nonhealing sore, swallowing difficulty, or a changing mole can warrant assessment.
- Treatment and risk reduction
- Treatment depends on cancer type and extent.