Therapy, external beam radiation
Radiation focused from a source outside the body on the affected area (a cancer) within the body. It’s much like getting a diagnostic x-ray, but using a more potent x-ray beam and giving it over a longer period of time per dose with usually multiple doses given over multiple days.
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- Therapy, fever
Using abnormal elevations in body temperature as a tool to treat disease. This was done in the past by deliberately raising the patient’s temperature to cause fever. Fever therapy was pioneered by the Austrian neuropsychiatrist Julius Wagner von Jauregg (1857-1940). He inoculated the malarial parasite into patients with dementia paralytica, the third and final stage […]
- Therapy, gene
adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency. In late October of 1999 the U.S. moved to require the disclosure of the results of gene therapy. The move by the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee came 6 weeks after the death of an 18-year-old Arizona man, Jesse Gelsinger, who was apparently the first person to die as a result of […]
- Therapy, hormone replacement (HRT)
The combination therapy of estrogen plus a progestogen. Formerly, hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Estrogen therapy (ET) is used to treat the symptoms of menopause. It reduces or stops the short-term changes of menopause such as hot flashes, disturbed sleep, and vaginal dryness. Estrogen therapy can prevent osteoporosis, a consequence of lowered estrogen levels. Vaginal estrogen […]
- Therapy, human gene
Insertion of normal DNA directly into cells to correct a genetic defect. The treatment of disease by replacing, altering, or supplementing a gene that is absent or abnormal and whose absence or abnormality is responsible for a disease. In studies of gene therapy for cancer, for example, researchers are trying to bolster the body’s natural […]
- Therapy, pulmonary
Exercises and treatments designed to help patients maintain and recover lung function, such as with cystic fibrosis and after surgery. Also used for COPD and asthma.