Symptoms
i) In the first stage, the patient has increased cosinophils, enlarged lymph nodes and positive intradermal parasite test
ii) Second or carrier stage is symptomless but right blood examination can reveal the parasite
iii) Third stage is characterized by filarial fever, inflammation of lymph nodes and lymph vessel
iv) The final stage is manifested by thickening of subcutaneous tissues and skin so that there is permanent swelling mostly feet, legs, thighs, scrotal sac, breast etc. it is called elephantiasis
Treatment
• The disease can be cured by drugs like hetrazan, MSE and diethyl carbamazine ( DEC )
• Reconstruction of affected body parts through surgery
• The disease can be prevented by prevented by taking precautions against mosquito bites
CANCER
• Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of cells and ability of proliferated cells to invade other tissues / parts body. It is more common in old persons after 40 days and in tissues where cells undergo divisions regularly
• Neoplasm is a new abnormal tissue that is capable of continued growth, formation of tumour, crowding and disrupting of normal cells. Tumours grow
or swelling are caused by abnormal proliferation of cells
• They are of two types, benign and malignant. Benign tumour is a large localized mass of abnormal tissue which pressures other tissues and cause pain but does not infiltrate adjacent tissue because it is encapsulated in connective tissue, malignant tumour is a large mass of abnormal tissue which is not encapsulated, is capable of invading adjacent tissue and distant sites
• Metastasis is spread of cancerous cells from one part of the body to other parts through blood, lymph or formation of secondaries from a malignant tumour
• Cancers are of three types
(i) Carcinoma : It is cancer of epithelial / epidermal tissue and their derivatives like skin, mucous membrane, glands, lungs, breast, pancreas, stomach etc
(ii) Sarcoma : It is the cancer of primitive mesodermal tissue like connective tissue, bones, muscles, lymph nodes, etc. Depending upon the tissue involved, sarcoma is of several types e.g. lymphoma ( involving lymph vessels ), lipoma ( adipose tissue ) osteoma ( bone), malignant reticulosis etc
(iii) Leukemia : It is malignancy where there is unwanted and uncontrolled increase in number of white blood corpuscles ( 200,000 – 1000,000 mm3) and immature or myeloid stem cells. In common type of Leukemia, the white blood corpuscles infiltrate bone marrow, spleen, liver, lymph nodes and other organs causing damage and increasing their size. In myelcytic leukemia ( 9th and 22nd chromosomes bring their jumping genes together) erythroblastic tissue of bone marrow degenerates. There is bleeding at different places. Tonsils and cervical glands enlarge. The most common cancers in India are mouth throat cancer in man and uterine cervical cancer in women.
• Carcinogenic factors : Factors inducing cancer
(i) Carcinogens / chemical carcinogens
These are substances / environmental pollutants which causes cancer.
Example soot, coal tar (skin an lungs), cigarette smoke ( Nnitrosodimethylene – lungs), Cadmium oxide ( Prostate gland), aflatoxin ( liver) 2-naphthylamine and 4-aminobiphenyl ( urinary bladder), mustard gas ( lungs) nickel and chromium compounds ( lungs), asbestos ( lungs, pleural membrane), diethylstilbestrol ( vagina), vinyl chloride ( liver), artificial sweeteners, excessive coffins, diet rich in animal proteins ( digestive tract ), sex hormones ( breast cancer).
(ii) Radiations
Both UV and ionizing radiations increase the incidence of cancer. Leukemia incidents are 10 time more in radiologists. Skin cancers are more common in areas with high UV radiations.
(iii) Heat
Reverse smoking causes mouth cancer. Kangri ( heating devices) increases incidence of cancer in Kashmir.
(iv) Tobacco
Tobacco chewing produces mouth cancer. Smoking increases chances of throat and lung cancer.
(v) Mechanical agents
Friction, trauma or continuous irritation seems to produce cancer.
• Cocarcinogens
They are chemicals or factors which function as cancer / tumour promoters. Cocarcinogens or epigenetic carcinogens promote neoplastic growth only after inhibition by carcinogen some cocarcinogens are Polonium, Nickel, Nicotine, Saccharine, Menobarbitol
• Mechanism / Carcinogenesis
It occurs through following stages
(i) Initiation: Carcinogens produce DNA lesions Epidermiological studies indicate that initiation of cancer occurs in childhood and youth
(ii) Promotion : Proto –oncogenes are changed to oncogenes. A cell with oncogene is called latent tumour cell. Promotion is reversible common promoters are saccharine and phenobarbitol
(iii) Loss of adhesion or loss of contact inhibition : Normal cells do not divide because of contact inhibition. Latent tumour call losers contact with other cells. This changes it into active tumour cell
(iv) Progression : The active tumour cell begine to divide and forms neoplasm or cell aggregate which later turns into tumour. Progression is slow so that external symptoms do not appear till the tumour is formed. It presses adjacent organs and tissue.
(v) Metastasia : Tumour cells are also called cancer cells. They become less adhesive. The cancer cell do not undergo differentiation. They release angiogenic factors which stimulate growth of blood vessels. Soon the cancer cells begin to migrate with or without secondaries
• Cancer cells have irregular, hypertrophied nucleus, abundant nuclear
granules, increased number of lysosomes, reduced cristal in mitochondria, more melanin mucus fat droplets and debris in cells. Further, genes llike ERCA1, BRCA2, CDH1, MLH1, PTEN mutate. This reduces the ability of DNA to repair itself. Same of the mutated genes were previously working as tumour suppressor genes
Symptoms
• A lump or hard area, swelling or sore that does not heal, unexpected loss of weight or hoarseness, change in colour of mole / wart, a change in digestive / bowel habits, loss of blood through a natural orifice or excessive loss of blood in women.
Diagnosis
• Biopsy of tissues endoscopy ( gastroscope for stomach, laproscope for pelvic region), X-rays ultra –sound.
Anticarcinogens
• They are substances which prevent the action of carcinogens, Anticarcinogens occurs in green yellow vegetables, fruits and milk. They are riboflavin ( milk), flavonoids ( green yellow vegetables and fruits), vitamin C, indoles ( cabbage, cauliflower), retinoids ( milk, carrot, butter), some synthetic oxidants in preserved foods ( butylated hydroxyl anisol and toluene ) etc. β- carotene present in green – yellow vegetables is promoter – inhibitor which weakens the action of cancer promoters
Treatment
• Surgery, bone marrow grafting ( Leukemia), radiotherapy ( exposure to radioactive isotopes), hormonal therapy, chemotherapy. Two drugs ( vincristin and vinblastin) from cantharantus roseus are effective in controlling leukemia. Taxol is anti –cancer drug obtained from Texus baccata.
• Prophylactic intake of taxomifen and raloxifene keeps breast cancer under check . Recently a drug tetrathiomolybdate has been tried with some cancer. It arrests tumour growth by starving cancer cells of copper PARP ( Poly ADP ribose poly merase) inhibitors also kill tumour cells with no side effects. Extract from Fagonia cretica has been found to cure breast cancer.