Home Health and Illness

Oncology And Critical Care

Oncology and its treatment

Cancer is a group of diseases in which cells are aggressive (grow and divide without respect to normal limits), invasive (invade and destroy adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastatic (spread to other locations in the body). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited in their growth and don't invade or metastasize (although some benign tumor types are capable of becoming malignant). Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk for the more common varieties tends to increase with age. Cancer causes about 13% of all deaths according to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007.

Cancer is usually classified according to the tissue from which the cancerous cells originate, as well as the normal cell type they most resemble. These are location and histology, respectively. A definitive diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of a tissue biopsy specimen by a pathologist, although the initial indication of malignancy can be symptoms or radiographic imaging abnormalities. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for different varieties of cancer. There has been significant progress in the development of targeted therapy drugs that act specifically on detectable molecular abnormalities in certain tumors, and which minimize damage to normal cells. The prognosis of cancer patients is most influenced by the type of cancer, as well as the stage, or extent of the disease. In addition, histologic grading and the presence of specific molecular markers can also be useful in establishing prognosis, as well as in determining individual treatments.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs ("anticancer drugs") that can destroy cancer cells. In current usage, the term "chemotherapy" usually refers to cytotoxic drugs which affect rapidly dividing cells in general, in contrast with targeted therapy (see below). Chemotherapy drugs interfere with cell division in various possible ways, e.g. with the duplication of DNA or the separation of newly formed chromosomes. Most forms of chemotherapy target all rapidly dividing cells and are not specific for cancer cells, although some degree of specificity may come from the inability of many cancer cells to repair DNA damage, while normal cells generally can. Hence, chemotherapy has the potential to harm healthy tissue, especially those tissues that have a high replacement rate (e.g. intestinal lining). These cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy.

Because some drugs work better together than alone, two or more drugs are often given at the same time. This is called "combination chemotherapy"; most chemotherapy regimens are given in a combination. The treatment of some leukemia's and lymphomas requires the use of high-dose chemotherapy, and total body irradiation (TBI). This treatment ablates the bone marrow, and hence the body's ability to recover and repopulate the blood. For this reason, bone marrow, or peripheral blood stem cell harvesting is carried out before the ablative part of the therapy, to enable "rescue" after the treatment has been given. This is known as autologous stem cell transplantation. Alternatively, hematopoietic stem cells may be transplanted from a matched unrelated donor (MUD).

Solid Tumors

Depending upon the cases registered the most prevalent cancers occurring in men and their treatments are as follows.

• For Lung Cancer
  • In Adjuvant Setting (Our Products)
    Docemark - Docetaxel (20, 80, 120 mg) Gemcel - Gemcitabine (200, 1000 mg)
  • In relapsed setting (Our Products)
    Paclimark - Paclitaxel (30,100,260 mg) along with Cisplatin is preferred
• For Oral Cancer
  • In Adjuvant (Our Products)
    Docemark - Docetaxel (20, 80, 120 mg)
  • During concomitant radiation (Our Products)
    Capest - Capecitabine 500 mg
• For Colorectal Cancer
  • In all the settings of Colorectal Cancer (Our Products)
    Oplax - Oxaliplatin (50,100 mg)
• For Prostate
  • After failure of Hormonal therapy the Uro-Oncologist can use (Our Products)
    Docemark - Docetaxel (20, 80, 120 mg)
• For mRCC (Met. Renal cell carcinoma)
  • As first line, we have our imported brand (Our Products)
    Markferon - Interferon Alfa 2b (3 MIU)

In women, the most prevalent cancers are Cervix, Breast, and Ovary.

• For Cervix cancers
  • The standard treatment in first line or chemo naïve patients includes (Our Products)
    Paclimark - Paclitaxel (30, 100, 260 mg)
• For Breast cancer
  • In Adjuvant Setting (Our Products)
    Rubimark - Epirubicin (10, 50 mg) Docemark - Docetaxel (20, 80, 120mg)
  • In Metastatic setting (Our Products)
    Paclimark - Paclitaxel (30, 100, 260 mg) Gemcel - Gemcitabine (200, 1000 mg)
• In Ovarian Cancer
  • In Adjuvant Setting
    The Paclimark and Cisplatin combination is a tried and tested protocol for treating the disease in adjuvant and metastatic setting.

Haematological Malignancies

These includes the cancers like Leukaemias and Lymphomas majorly

For CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia) we have a drug, which evolved the treatment. (Our Products)

• Imimark - Imatinib Mesylate (100, 400 mg)

Supportive Therapy (Our Products)

Other than the chemotherapeutic agents, we have an imported brand of G-CSF (Filgrastim) by the brand name.

• Stineugen - (Filgrastim 300 mcg)

Stineugen is given when the patient has been prescribed high dose chemotherapy, and also in Neutropenic condition when his Neutrophil counts drops down. This a condition in which the patient is prone to any kind of Infection and his body cannot react to it. Stineugen helps in generation of Neutrophil counts in lesser time to combat the infections.

Critically Ill Patients

This class of patients are the ones who are critically ill and also suffering from bacterial infection, for them we provide with higher end antibiotics. The timely use of such antibiotics not only helps the patient but also the physician to take control of the situation.

• Pizosans - Pipracillin + Tazobactum (4gm + 500 mg) (Our Products)
  Pizosans is a drug for presumptive therapy in critically ill under going cancer therapy
• Sanmero - Meropenem (500, 1000 mg) (Our Products)
  This is an antibiotic of choice which has least bacterial resistance, which is used for treating extremely critically ill patients and considered as 'Ultimate' Lifesaver

Anticoagulants

Other critically ill patients include the ones who are suffering from conditions like Coronory Heart disease, DVT or Pulmonary Embolism. The chances of clot formation can lead to mortality in this condition. The physician first and fore most effort is to stabilize the patient with safe and effective anticoagulants.

Enoxaparin (LMWH) is one such anticoagulant that acts as a stabaliser and the clot formation or the clot formed is taken care of.

• Markparin- Enoxaparin (40, 60 mg) (Our Products)
  This is the first imported brand under Criticare's banner and the Flagship brand of Marksans Pharma Ltd and third in the LMWH market.
  
  In a nutshell the division strives in "Reviving Life to Rejoice"