Why digestive cancers are complicated

Dr Joseph Kamugisha On one of the evenings during the New Year festivities, I met a brother to one of my former clients. He engaged me in a conversation and he wanted to know more details about cancer illnesses with their associated varying severity. He asked me what might be the most aggressive or complicated cancer diseases and possibilities to overcome them. His question was a little tricky because nearly all malignant diseases manifest in a silent and aggressive form. However, based on the latest clinical studies, nearly all malignancies have known particular causes that might be or not known to every scientist. The known commonest cause for cancer is genetic predisposition though we have to agree that for any cancer cell to grow there must be precipitating factors. This is the reason why there is sometimes a long interval for occurrence of a cancer victim in the family despite of a known cancer predisposition in the family. You observe a long lapse of time in families known to be exposed to a strong family history. Alteration of a genetic code is not a simple affair and this is why cancer does not develop in one week or month but it’s a destruction that goes on for years. The take home advice is that individuals with known family history for cancer need to seek consultative information from cancer-trained physicians. Particular cancer illnesses have varying predisposing factors. Such lifestyle measures can help you check or minimise exposures to risk factors that can accelerate or stimulate the occurrence of cancerous mutations in your body. Back to the question of my friend, I gave him a comparison of two tricky and risky situations as seen in previous guerilla military battles. There is a situation where an enemy cuts off your essential life supplies like food, water, and electricity and at the same time attack you. And in another situation, an enemy attacks or advances directly to fight you in any fashionable manner. The latter is automatically the easier option to imagine. All malignant cancer diseases are very aggressive and tricky to manage. The problem in management of digestive cancers is that they offer great hindrance to supplementation of essential or required body nutrients. The digestive tract is the focal point for absorption and assimilation of all body nutrients. In addition, patients with digestive cancer illnesses suffer more heavy losses and deficiencies from essential body minerals and vitamins as has been seen in other malignancies. Deficiency from minerals and vitamins can easily weaken the immune system. Severe cases of uncontrolled deficiencies or electrolyte imbalances usually lead to death. A patient who is fed by supplements cannot be compared to some one feeding orally on special needs or requirements. We fight a lot to establish and stabilise the general condition of a patient especially when we are planning for a particular type of treatment to offer. Poor general condition of patients limits introduction of any conventional method of treatment that can be either chemotherapy or radiotherapy or both. Assessment of the general patient condition is one of the important parameters and considerations taken before administration of any medicine to a cancer patient. Malignant cells tend to attack the immune cells once they get established in the body. This is the reason why most cancer patients tend to present with a weakened immune system soon than later. Cancer patients need well-balanced and adequate body nutrients to compensate losses or repair damages posed by the cancer cell. All digestive cancers from the mouth up to the rectum pose constant discomfort to patients. Feeding by nasal gastric tube or directly through the stomach sac does not provide adequate needs for these patients. Provided other associated clinical challenges are well controlled, feeding in non-digestive malignancies can be tolerated to a certain extent. Good health support offers good tolerance to the medicine and provides good response results. You should therefore compare you digestive tube to the role of an engine in any movable machine. Stress and toxins have been widely studied to reduce the immune system. Stress might not only be subjected to your brains but you can expose your intestines to unnecessary stress caused by digestive disorders such as constipation, bloats or even infections. A motor tyre used on a tarmac road does not last the same period as that one running on a stony road. This means your digestive tube can be subjected to wear and tear in ingestion of unhealthy substances.

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Why digestive cancers are complicated