Battling Cancer

What do you know about blood? Take the quiz. Test your knowledge here.

Donating blood is one of the easiest ways to help cancer patients. It’s an ongoing need as red blood cells can only be stored for 42 days and platelets for 5 days.

The first recorded blood transfusion was in 1492, when the Pope (Pope Innocent VIII) was transfused. In 1901, the first human blood types (A,B and O) were documents by Austrian physician, Karl Landsteiner. The fourth blood type, AB was documented in 1902 by Decatsrello and Sturli.

From 1995-1999 the U.S. government put into place regulations to increase the safety of donated blood including testing to identify genetic viruses such as HIV and HCV.

Blood Types

Break down of Blood Types in The United States

• O positive 38%
• O negative 7%
• A positive 34%
• A negative 6%
• B positive 9%
• B negative 2%
• AB positive 3%
• AB negative 1%

Source,The American Red Cross, 2007.

The Universal Donor Theory?

Per the Mayo Clinic: “There is no universal blood donor type. Donated blood is routinely classified by type as A, B, AB or O, and as Rh positive or Rh negative. In the past, people with Type O/Rh negative blood were considered universal blood donors. This implied that anyone, regardless of blood type, could receive Type O/Rh negative blood without risking a transfusion reaction.” However now it is understood that even this type of donor could cause reactions.

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Insomnia is considered one of the most serious side effects of cancer.

45% to 50% of all cancer patients deal with disturbances of sleep.

The sleep cycle consists of four stages, going from light to deep sleep and finally REM (Rapid Eye Movement). The sleep cycle takes about 90 minutes. Per SleepDex, “infants spend almost 50% of their time in REM sleep. Adults spend nearly half of sleep time in stage 2, about 20% in REM and the other 30% is divided between the other three stages . ”

Are you getting enough sleep? A typical adult needs about 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Many people say they only need five hours of sleep a night, but researchers have found that this is true of only about 10% of the adult population.

The typical cancer patient has many valid reasons why their sleep is being disturbed.

Causes of sleep disturbances in cancer patients:

• Chemotherapy and other medication side effects
• Pain
• Anxiety
• Nausea
• Lower GI problems such as constipation or diarrhea
• Depression
• Interruptions of sleep in the hospital
• General fatigue
• Stress

Are you sleep deprived? Find out. Test your reaction time at Sheep Dash.

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Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of cancer is a treatment which involves the placement of a needle probe into a small tumor (5-7 cm) and utilizing heat generated by RFA energy (not radiation) into the needle to destroy the tumor. Once the probe is inserted, prongs are opened for placement. A video demonstration of the procedure is available online at the American Cancer Ablation Center site.

RFA is the same type of energy used in electrosurgical cauterizing units.

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