BRAIN TUMORS

The freak-out: Rachel Carlson suffered from horrible headaches most of her life, but the 26-year-old editor considered them more annoying than life threatening – until a chance remark made by her doctor. “My family insisted I see a neurologist, and though he thought stress the cause, he happened to mention that there was a 2 percent chance that my headaches were caused by a brain tumor,” says Carlson. ‘That’s a tiny percentage, but I fixated on it. “Fortunately, an MRI ruled out that scary scenario, though Carlson still has a nagging fear that a brain tumor is in her future. The reality check: It’s unclear what causes brain tumors – they’re very rarely inherited, and there’s little research to suggest that exposure to environmental toxins causes them. And the likelihood of getting a brain tumor is very small – one person in every 20,000 gets one each year, and many of them are treatable. But if you have symptoms, such as severe headaches, fatigue, and disorientation, you should see a physician. Bear in mind that those problems could be caused by 101 other, says Henry S. Friedman, M.D., A physician with the Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, including migraine, tension, and sinus headaches.

And headaches aren’t the only panic provoker; ever since studies linking cell-phone use and brain cancer made headlines a few years ago, wireless young women everywhere have been overanalyzing their exposure. If you’re one of them, take heart: “No data proves that there’s a relationship between cell-phone use and brain tumors,” says Dr. Friedman. Super-safety Measure: If you still want to reduce your exposure to cell-phone radiation, “avoid using your phone where the signal strength is weak, because the phone will have to increase its radiation power to get reception, “advises John Moulder, Ph.D., a specialist in cancer and radiation at the Medical College of Wiscounsin.

SKIN CANCER

The freak-out: As luck would have it, the day after Suzanne Green, a 25-year-old fashion stylist, read an article on skin cancer, she found two new moles on her body. “I’m convinced that one or more of my moles has turned cancerous. It’s all I can think about,” says Green, who spent her teen years sunbathing on the beaches of her native California, slathered in baby oil. “I know I should really get them checked out, but I’m scared the dermatologist will flip out when she hears I haven’t been checked by a doctor in five years. “The advent of tanning beds in the 1980s spawned a generation of tanning addicts – the darker the better. As a result, many of those young women now fear they’ve done irreversible damage to their skin and are bracing themselves for the fallout. The reality check: The hard truth is, Green, like most women, has cause for concern. Melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer, is the most common type in women ages 25 to29. (Basal cell and squamous cell cancers, which are more common than melanoma, have considerably higher cure rates). And enemy number one is – you guessed it – the sun, which is responsible for 90 percent of skin cancer cases.

But don’t beat yourself up over baking in the rays as an adolescent. Instead, from now on, vow to seek shade during the sun’s most intense hours – 10a.m. to 2 p.m. – and wear sunscreen with at least an SPF of 15 all year-round. Alan Kling, a New York City dermatologist, also recommends doing a thorough head-to-toe self-exam regularly. As you can check out each mole, beware of warning signs by following the rules of A, B, C and D: Asymmetry; irregular borders; changes in color, and changes in diameter. Other telltale signs include spots that continually itch, hurt or bleed. Super-safety measure: have a spot check examination by a dermatologist once a year.

from Cosmopolitan June 2000

1. Now you are going to read a true story “I Got Breast Cancer at Twenty”. Explain the underlined vocabulary in English.

After Sarah Aschenbach had

a mastectomy, insensitive boyfriends

and body-image problems

threatened her happiness – until she

realized she was lucky to be alive.

As told to Melba Newsome

When I was 20, my life seemed perfect. I was a college junior majoring in business at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and was looking forward to making good money at a major accounting firm after graduation. I wasn’t in a relationship, but I had a large group of friends and an active social life. I was also a starting player on the varsity lacrosse team. Then, totally out of the blue, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I knew the disease could afflict women as young 30, but who’s ever heard of breast cancer striking someone who hasn’t even reached the legal drinking age? At first I was in complete shock. Later, I became freaked out by how the surgery I had to have physically changed my body. But the one thing I never expected was the psychological toll it would take on me. It turned that my emotional recovery would be the biggest hurdle of all.

Disturbing Discovery

One morning as I was getting up for class, I suddenly noticed a golf ball-size lump in the side of my left breast. It wasn’t painful, but it was tender to the touch. I had never noticed it before, so I figured that I had just pulled a muscle while playing lacrosse and it would go away in a few days. When I went home to Maryland for Christmas break a month later, it was still there. But I wasn’t worried – I never even considered that it might be breast cancer.

A few days before I was supposed to return to school, I told my mom about the lump, and her attitude was not nearly as dismissive as mine. Her family had no history of breast cancer, but my father’s did. At the time, his mother was a long-term breast cancer survivor and his 52-year-old sister, my Aunt Joy, was in remission after having a lumpectomy and chemotherapy several years earlier.

Mom immediately made an appointment for me at the George Washington University Breast care Center in Washington, D.C. I agreed to go to appease her, but secretly I thought she was making a big deal out of nothing. When we got there, the doctor took great pains to tell me that the chances of a 20-year-old having breast cancer were very slim – women in their 20s account for only 0.3 percent of all cases. He said that the lump could by a cyst caused by too much caffeine, but because of its large size, he insisted that I have a biopsy, which was scheduled for three weeks later.

Back at school, I kept my friends and roommates totally in the dark about everything that was going on. When they asked me why I was going home again so soon after Christmas break, I lied and told them I needed a minor operation to remove some scar tissue. I felt embarrassed about the whole thing, and it seemed stupid to get everyone alarmed fro no reason.

Putting Life on Hold

The biopsy took place early in the morning. I woke up in recovery several hours after the surgery feeling angry, cranky, and desperate to get out. Simply being in a hospital had forced me to consider that maybe something was wrong after all. But I would have to wait two days for the lab results to come back to find out for sure. When I returned home from an errand on Monday afternoon, my mother’s face said it all: I had cancer. Suddenly, instead of parties, classes, and lacrosse games, my life would be consumed by doctors, hospitals, surgeries, and treatments. And what if none of it worked? My friends would finish college and move on with their lives and leave me behind. What had I done to deserve this? Supposedly, if you exercised, ate right, and took good care of yourself, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I did all of those things and still got cancer. It seemed so unfair.

But I didn’t really have much time to feel sorry for myself. The surgery was scheduled for Saturday morning, just five days after I heard the bad news. I had two options: have my breast removed and if the cancer had not spread everything would be over or have the lump removed, undergo chemotherapy, and hope for the best. My Aunt Joy had gone through chemo, and having watched her suffer with bouts of nausea and hair loss, I was convinced not to go that route. I chose to have my left breast removed – a drastic option that also seemed like the best chance for a quick recovery, which is what I wanted more than anything.

My doctor suggested that I have my breast reconstructed at the same time as the mastectomy – it would mean one less operation and I wouldn’t have to see myself with only one breast, which might be traumatic. When I met with the plastic surgeon, I refused to agree to the reconstruction unless he promised I could return to lacrosse right away. “You’re dealing with a life-threatening illness and your biggest concern is playing lacrosse?” he asked impatiently. True, I loved the sport, but also I loved what it represented – being normal and healthy.

The next step was deciding what kind of reconstruction to have. The doctor could not use fatty tissue from my backside because I was too thin, and all the news reports about the dangers of silicone implants frightened me, so I chose a saline implant. The doctor explained that most of the operation would take place immediately after the surgery, but the nipple would have to be reconstructed several months later after the swelling had gone down.

The five days between the diagnosis and the surgery dragged on. My friends and family tried to keep me busy and I put up a brave front, but I was terrified. I’d never even thought about getting old, and now I was confronting the fact that I could die. I cried myself to sleep every night.

Not quite Whole

Saturday afternoon, I awoke from the four-hour surgery to find my breast gone and a new one in its place. Four days later, we found out from the lab report that the cancer hadn’t spread, so I wouldn’t need any further treatment. My mom wanted to open a bottle of champagne, but I was too nauseous and I didn’t really feel like celebrating. I was ready to put the whole incident behind me. Little did I know, I was only beginning the healing process.

My parents urged me to get counseling. I agreed even though talking about my cancer each week did not seem like a good way to move on. I tried several different counselors but couldn’t relate to any of them – the women were much older and the men seemed like they couldn’t understand. Each time I walked out midway through the session, feeling worse than I had before I went in. Soon I stopped going altogether. In retrospect, I realize that I was angry I had to deal with this at my age, and no counselor could have reached me.

When I returned to school two weeks after the operation, I was greeted by a group of incredibly supportive friends. I was a little weak from surgery, so people would offer to do my grocery shopping or laundry, but I’d usually turn them down. I wanted to prove that I could manage on my own. I also grew tired of people asking “How are you?” I always said that I was fine and changed the subject. But I was not fine.

My reconstructed breast was uncomfortable and felt very different from the other one. I hated looking at myself nude and dressed for lacrosse practice at home to avoid changing in front of my teammates. I had always been insecure about my body, forever wanting to be thinner or fitter. Having the mastectomy multiplied those insecurities tenfold. I overcompensated for losing my breast with compulsive exercise, spending a lot of my free time in the gym after lacrosse season ended. At least the rest of me will be perfect, I reasoned. I also stopped going out socially and completely lost interest in guys. How could I be with anyone when looking at my own body caused me so much pain?

After a second surgery in June to reconstruct my nipple using skin from my bikini line, I spent the rest of the summer working for the LPGA (golf) tournament. I loved being outside and meeting professional golfers, so when they asked me to stay through the fall semester, I jumped at the chance to take a breather from college. During the previous semester, I came to realize that I no longer wanted to be an accountant. After facing death, I could not imagine spending my days locked in a cubicle crunching numbers.

Making My Way back

I needed time to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. Then something happened that would start to change my negative feelings about myself. One night I went to a friend’s Christmas party and met this great guy named jay. “We clicked instantly and dated for about two months before things got physical. Though I dreaded it, I knew that if we were going to sleep together I would have to mention the mastectomy. After days of agonizing, I finally told him one night while we were at my house watching television. “About a year ago, I was sick,” I said, as tears rolled down my face. “I had breast cancer and had to have my left breast removed and reconstructed.” His response was perfect. “This only makes me think more of you,” he said. “Now I really see what a strong person you are.” Jay’s sensitivity was a tremendous boost to my self-confidence. Throughout our eight-month relationship, Jay never gave me indication that the mastectomy mattered in the least. At first I felt uncomfortable when he touched my left breast, but he acted as if there was no difference between the two. A year and a half after my surgery, I finally began to feel more comfortable with my body.

Unfortunately, not every guy was as mature as Jay. After we broke up, I encountered more than a few jerks. “I don’t know what to say to that,” one guy said after I told him about my ordeal. There was no “I’m sorry” or “How are you doing now?” - Nothing. He wouldn’t even talk about it! When he stopped calling shortly afterward, I was crushed. This never would have happened if I were whole, I told myself. For a long time, I believed I should accept that kind of treatment and be grateful to whoever wanted me.

Then something horrible happened that really changed my perspective. Three years after my operation, my Aunt Joy died. She had been a very caring person – she really understood what I had gone through- and I loved her deeply. When I was diagnosed, she spent a lot of time talking to me and telling me that I’d be fine. Suddenly, with her gone, all of my fears about dying came rushing back. But my mother and doctor reassured me that my aunt and I had two entirely different kinds of breast cancer. That was when I recognized how lucky I was to have survived.

That acknowledgment helped me to accept myself – scars and all. It also helped me change my attitude about relationships. Telling guys about my medical history is still hard, but it’s become a kind of litmus testto weed out the jerks. If a guy freaks out or stops calling, good riddance. I know there are other great guys out there who can make me feel pretty, confident, and sexy.

Getting breast cancer has changed my whole perspective. I’m less concerned with what others think of me, and making a lot of money is way down on my list of priorities. Life’s far too short to delay happiness for a job that isn’t personally rewarding. After I finished college, I coached high school lacrosse. Eventually I went to work as a real estate broker, which allows me to set my own schedule and spend a lot of time outside, which is something I insist on being able to do. I also go to local high schools to speak about my experience. I’m still obsessive about my body, but now I’m also more appreciative of it. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I really thought my life was over. Now I’m reminded that it’s only just begun.

From Cosmopolitan June 2000

1. Render and discuss the story. Give your own response on it.

1. Choose the most suitable title for the text.

A The search for cures to treat common diseases is not new, nor id it unusual to the cures for such diseases in tree bark. Aspirin for headaches and quinine for the treatment of malaria are both examples of modern medicines which have been derived from tree bark. But the latest addition to this list may be the most significant yet, according to the findings of research into the medical benefits of the bark of the African Bush Willow. At an international conference, Dr. Scott Remick of the USA Claimed that combretastin, a product of this bark, has proved up to 85% effective in combating cancer, and may, in combination with chemotherapy, finally provide a way to destroy many types of tumour.

B The African Bush Willow, which grows in South Africa, has been recognized as a medical plant by local tribespeople for many years. In the past, its roots were used as purgatives and its gum was used to treat sores and ulcers. Common along river banks in southern Africa, this plant (scientific name, Combretum caffrum) has proved both hardy and prolific. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing trees and can grow one metre in height annually to a maximum of fourteen metres. To sustain this level of growth normally requires warmth, rich soil and abundant water. But even when these are in short supply, the African Bush Willow can survive. It is resistant to severe drought and even sustained periods of frost, and temperature well below zero do not damage the tree.

C Combretastin, the active ingredient in the bark, was originally isolated from the stems and branches in the 1970s by South African researcher, Dr. Gordon Cragg. A massive seventy-seven kilogrammes of material was needed from the tree to produce just a few miligramms of the active ingredient. However, scientists have now been able to produce the drug synthetically. This type of manufacturing has meant that the drug can now be mass-produced and used much more widely in the treatment of cancer. Most cancers are caused by tumours, which create their network of capillaries to supply the blood they need in order to grow. The effect of combretastin is to reduce the tumour’s ability to create these capillaries and thereby starve the tumour to death.

D Combretastin appears to work very quickly, often reducing the blood flow to a tumour within four to six hours after its first application. A feature in its favour is that combretastin does not appear to affect the blood supplies to other healthy organs. But used in isolation, a small number of cancerous cells which appear able to live off normal blood supplies, appear to remain unaffected by combretastin, and radiation therapy is required to destroy these cells and remove the threat of cancer altogether.

E Initial trials have been carried out on twenty-five patients in the USA. These have met with a remarkable measure of success. One 55-year-old man, suffering from a particularly aggressive form of thyroid cancer before treatment, has been cancer-free for two years following a course of the new drug. It is generally held that if a cancer does not return within two years of treatment, it has been cured. So far, other patients involved in the trials since then, including those with cancer of the bowel have also remained clear of their cancers.

F Trials in the UK have met with similar success, but have reported significant side effects, including diarrhea and skin pain. In Britain, experts believe that the drug works best in conjunction with other therapies, including radiotherapy. The results of these combined treatments suggest that 85% of cancers could be totally eliminated, and similar trials are due to start in the USA. Dr. Kate Law of the Cancer Research Campaign in London comments, “We will be watching the results of these trials with interest. On the face of it, these three latest trials are very encouraging.”

G The drug has been greeted with enthusiasm by professionals and patients alike despite some of the experiments having limited success. One patient suffering from lung cancer agreed to be on of the guinea pigs in the pharmaceutical trials. Fortunately he met with a degree of success in that his respiratory organs have been clear for over a year. However, this has not been the case with the other source of cancer and as yet the new drug has tend no marked effect on it. Nevertheless, researchers are continuing in their quest to find a cure for all forms of cancers and they are confident that a breakthrough is on the horizon.

1. Choose the best answers A, B, C or D. Prove your choice.

The active ingredient of combretastin was found in which part of the tree (the gum; the branches; the roots; the leaves)?

According to the text, medicines NOT derived from tree bark, have been used to cure which condition (sores; malaria; cancer; migraine)?

According to the text, which of the following has not as yet been cured using combretastin (bowel cancer; thyroid cancer; liver cancer; lung cancer)?

1. Insert no more than three words from the text.

Reasearchers believe that advances will be made in ……… in finding cures for all types of cancer.

The African Bush Willow is extremely sturdy and can survive long intervals in very low ……..

In Britain, researchers believe that most cancers can be cured using combretastin together with ……..

1. The text has seven paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading for paragraphs B-G from the list below. There are more headings them paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

1. Discuss the following:

Touchy Topic Time Line

What to tell him and when

Revealing embarrassing details about your medical history or sexual health to a new dude is a daunting task – and for good reason. “Telling too much too soon can scare him off,” says Gall E. Wyatt, Ph.D., a sex therapist and professor of psychiatry at UCLA. So how do you decide what to fess up? “The depth of information you disclose and when you share it should be based on how serious the relationship is,” explains Wyatt, who suggests following these guidelines:

* Before having sex: You’re obliged to tell a guy you plan to sleep with if you have any sexually transmitted diseases – even if you intend to use condom. It’s also a good idea to give him a heads up about any sexual dysfunction you suffer from (such as an ability to produce natural lubricants) or physical differences you may have (such as an extra nipple or severe scarring). It takes guts to be upfront, but it could spare you both a lot of pain or embarrassment down the road.

* Before it becomes committed and exclusive: Now’s the time to divulge things that might interfere with the progression of your relationship: past sexual trauma, chronic fatigue syndrome, any incurable medical conditions – such as epilepsy or diabetes – or mental-health problems (bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression).

* Before you contemplate marriage: Your future husband is entitled to know about your reproductive health, if you’re aware of an inability to conceive children, and any family history of mental illness or health conditions that may be genetic.

1. Read the following article and make sure you know the vocabulary: to orbit, guinea pig, bodily fluids, muscles atrophy, sleep deprivation, queasiness, drowsiness, manned-vehicle laboratory, freed, pull of gravity, to pool, bulge, puffy, sinuses, lightheadedness, downward pull, snooze, twitch, to gauge, erect, get a workout, countermeasure, bungee cords, reversible, tether, treadmill, spin, heal, confinement, unraveled,

1. Recall the situations with the following words, word-combinations and phrases: a generation ago, the effects on the human body, dramatic/ harmful effects on physiology, medical experiments, undergo extensive weightlessness, body’s balance mechanisms, eliminate through, thirst, increased urination, return to normal, vertebrae, terrestrial studies, to impair judgment, to blunt memory, to monitor brain activity, circadian rhythm research, amino acids, urine samples, bone loss disease, artificial gravity, fight off viruses.

1. Ponder on that EVEN HEROES FIND LIVING ALOFT TO BE HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH.

Space Takes its Toll

For space enthusiasts, it’s almost like the good old days again. The nine-day flight of shuttle Discovery beginning later this month is expected to draw nearly as much public attention as the historic Mercury and Apollo missions did a generation ago. The reason, of course, is that America’s original space hero, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, is making his second space flight. This time the 77-year-old senator has signed on as a medical guinea pig.

When Glenn first went up in 1962, next to nothing was known about the effects of space flight on the human body. Now nearly 700 individuals have flown, on missions ranging from Glenn’s five hours to Russian Valeri Polyakov’s 438 days. Scientists now know that space flight has dramatic and harmful effects on physiology. Astronauts get space sick, they lose bodily fluids including blood, their bones and muscles atrophy, their balance is upset, and they suffer sleep deprivation. They’re also exposed to radiation; the longer the flight, the more radiation increases the risk of cancer. On Discovery, Glenn will participate in 10 medical experiments aimed at helping figure out what will happen to humans who live in space for extended periods, such as a two-year trip to Mars and back.

The most delightful aspect of space travel – weightlessness – is also the most problematic. Even though astronauts and cosmonauts undergo extensive weightlessness training in airplanes, about 75 percent suffer form of space motion sickness, including queasiness, headache, lack of ability to concentrate, and drowsiness. About a third vomit repeatedly over several days, although drugs can reduce symptoms. “The good news is, almost everyone gets over it in two to four days,” says Charles Oman, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s manned-vehicle laboratory, who is studying the body’s balance mechanisms and space motion sickness.

Freed from the pull of gravity, the body immediately changes the distribution of bodily fluids. Blood that normally pools in the legs because of gravity migrates toward the head. Neck veins bulge, faces become puffy, sinuses fill, noses run, and legs get skinny. The brain thinks the body has at least a quart too much fluid, and the excess is eliminated through decreased thirst and increased urination. In order to avoid problems such as lightheadedness after returning to Earth, crew members take salt tablets with a quart of water just before landing.

Getting taller. The composition of the blood is altered, too. The percentage of blood volume made up of red blood cells declines, production of new red cells decreases, and the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity, as a result, is reduced. It takes astronauts about a month after they return home for their blood to return to normal.

Without the downward pull of gravity, space fliers soon grow up to 2 inches taller. That’s because pressure on the discs separating the vertebrae in the back is gone, and the discs expand. When they return, they shrink to their usual height.

Astronauts also consistently report that they don’t get enough sleep. They average only six hours a night, says David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is on a National Space Biomedical Research Institute team studying sleep and the body’s circadian rhythms, which are regulated by the rising and setting of the sun. Terrestrial studies simulating space travel show that by the seventh night “the performance of that individual looks like someone who has been awake 36-to 48 hours,” Dinges says. Lack of sleep slows thought processes, impairs judgment, and blunts memory.

Glenn and Japanese astronaut Chiaki Mukai, 46, each will wear a cap with electrodes to monitor brain activity while they snooze. Their eye and facial muscle twitches will be recorded to gauge the depth of their sleep, and they will wear vests that measure respiration. Older people often suffer disturbed sleep, but the elderly Glenn may not be a good example of this. “He sleeps like a log,” NASA researchers report.

As part of the circadian rhythm research, every day Glenn and Mukai each will swallow a pill that contains a thermometer and tiny radio transmitter. The pill will broadcast their core body temperatures, which vary over the course of a day, to receivers they’ll wear on their belts.

Because Glenn is spending less than two weeks in space, he won’t experience the more devastating long-term effects of weightlessness. After several months on the Russian Mir space station, Russians and Americans typically lose about 15 percent of their muscle mass and strength.

Most of the loss is in muscles in the legs and back that keep the body balanced and erect in Earth’s gravity, says Frank Sulzman, deputy of NASA’s life sciences division. Further, astronauts use their arms to move themselves around in space, so leg muscles don’t get a workout.

On Discovery, Glenn will be given amino acids involved in muscle buildup and breakdown that have been chemically altered slightly so they can be detected in blood and urine samples. The amounts found in the samples should help re searchers understand muscle loss.

Vigorous exercise appears to be effective countermeasure to muscle loss, but it’s hard to make astronauts do the required work. Shannon Lucid, who spent six months on Mir, reported afterward that “the daily exercise was what I disliked most.” The twice-daily 45-minute exercise sessions on Mir, alternating between pulling against bungee cords and running on a treadmill, were hard, long, boring – and smelly, since it’s not possible to take a shower after every workout.

Brittle bones. But muscles can be rebuilt back on Earth. Bone loss in space could be a much more serious problem. Astronauts and cosmonauts lose about 1 percent of their bone mass a month in space, and there is no indication that the rate of loss ever stops or levels off. This rate of bone loss is 10 times as high as that of osteoporosis, the bone-loss disease suffered by older people. Bone loss is not serious for short shuttle flights like Glenn’s, but it could be worrisome for a two-year flight to mars. Some researchers fear that the loss not be reversible, in which case ex-astronauts could be more likely to break bones back on Earth.

So far, it’s not clear what should be done to reduce or prevent bone loss. Exercises such as hard running while tethered by elastic bands to a treadmill don’t seem to slow the loss. Some researchers say that drugs used to control osteoporosis might help. As a last resort, it may be necessary to build centrifuges on long-duration spacecraft in which crew members could spin part of the day in artificial gravity. Providing artificial gravity with centrifuges or by rotating part or all of a space vehicle, however, would add cost and complexity to the mission.

There is also preliminary evidence that space travel harms the immune system. On long flights astronauts may not be able to fight off viruses and wounds may not heal quickly, according to William Shearer, an immunologist at the Baylor College of Medicine who leads a team studying the issue. He says that stress, confinement, isolation, lack of sleep, and radiation all can affect the immune system.

The medical problems of space travel aren’t likely to ground future astronauts. Instead, they are puzzles to be unraveled and overcome. With the International Space Station, which will be built starting late this year, researchers hope to learn how to live for long periods in space.

by William J. Cook from U.S. News & World Report, October 1998

1. Give your response to the article.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 894