diagnosing cancer?

Question

Why is it important to confirm the diagnosis and confirm which type of cancer.

Answer 1

"Thera" and others above have the right ideas. I'm a retired cancer / chemotherapy specialist - medical oncologist. There are many subtypes of cancers even for the same locations such as breast, lung or lymphatics. Most people want to know what their chances are and how the cancer might be expected to behave. Knowing the cell type allows us to make an estimate of percentage chances for response to drug or radiation or combination treatments. Medical oncologists are guided in their choices of chemotherapy regimens based on this biopsy information.
There are more than fifty chemo agents and many more combinations that can be used. The cell type is EXTREMELY important to know. The more you know about a malignancy, the better you can plan treatment and explain expected results to concerned patients and family members.
In cancer diagnoses, people almost always want us to predict the future as closely as possible.

Answer 2

Treatment, operability, and expectation of lifespan are highly based on the type of cancer.

Starting diagnosis without a proper confirmation of the type of cancer could do a lot more harm than good.

For example, say you find a tumor in your bladder. If you don't biopsy it, you can't find out the type. More importantly, if you don't scan other areas, yoiu may not catch all the cancer. It may have come from your lungs. If you don't type the cancer, which also is indicitive of its behavior, you won't be able to treat it. That is VERY true for Lung Cancer, even though lung cancer is a death sentance...they recently discovered a specific type of cancer that is found in the bladder may be
"treated" and "gone" after three years, but mostly it shows up again in the lungs and ends up killing the patient...as with what happened to my Grandfather. If they would have known that Lung Cancer was linked to that specific bladder cancer...they could have done early screaning and potentially delayed metastasis.

I knew someone with a type of liver cancer that is especially good at metastisizing in the lungs. Part of her treatment, outside of radiation and excising the tumor, include checking her lungs since that particular cancer loooves the lungs. Not all Liver cancers do this.

Answer 3

Is really important to confirm the diagnosis, because (1) if you don't have cancer, you don't have to receive treatment. (2) Cancer is not only one disease, is a group of diseases with a particular conduct. So, you will receive a different kind of treatment depending on your diagnosis.

Answer 4

Diagnosis: Do you have cancer or not. Most important to know, because if you don't have it, you don't need treatment.

Type: Different types need different treatments, you need the right treatment or you won't have a chance to cure the cancer.

Answer 5

certain types of chemo treatments works better with certain types of cancers. Also some types of cancer respond well to radiation. Or the biospy of the lesion may show that is benign and nothing to worry about. Hope that helps.

Answer 6

it guides doctor to which treatment is appropriate for the patient