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Cancer

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CONDITIONS

Cancer Risk

Who Gets Cancer?

Every year as per statistics over one million people in the US get cancer. Half of American men and one third of American women have a chance of getting cancer in their lifetime. Age seems no bar though all cancer diagnosis shows that it is predominant in people 55 years and older. Cancer has been found in Americans of all racial and ethnic groups with the incidence rate varying group to group.

One of the single most important weapons in the fight against cancer is its early detection. It has been found and verified that the chances of cure has increased with early detection.

What are the Risk factors?

A risk factor in medical terms is anything that increases the chance of a person to get a disease. For getting cancer it has been found that the person's age, sex, and family medical history can be important risk factors. Then there are the environmental factors. Other than these there are the person's life style factors-of use of tobacco and alcohol, diet and exposure to sun's UV rays. Some of these factors can be changed and others cannot.

If a person is associated with any of these risk factors in his life then he has a larger probability of being affected by cancer in his life-time. Though it has been observed that a person with a large number of risk factors does not get cancer yet a person with no apparent risk gets it. Also no linkages have been observed between cancer and the risk factors.

Different risk factors have been associated with different types of cancers. Some of these are:

Breast cancer: Age; changes in hormone levels throughout life, such as age at first menstruation, number of pregnancies, and age at menopause; obesity; and physical activity. Studies have also shown a connection between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of breast cancer. Also, women with a mother or sister who have had breast cancer are more likely to develop the disease themselves.
Cancers of lung, mouth, larynx, bladder, kidney, cervix esophagus, and pancreas: Tobacco use, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff. Smoking alone causes one-third of all cancer deaths.
Skin cancer: Exposure to strong sunlight.
Prostate cancer: Age, race, and diet. The chance of getting prostate cancer goes up with age.
Prostate cancer is more common among African-American men than among white men. (We do not yet know why this is so.) A high-fat diet may play a part in causing prostate cancer. Also, men with a father or brother who have had prostate cancer are more likely to get prostate cancer themselves.

In the US three-fourths of the cancer cases are caused due to the following environmental factors: tobacco usage, diet, infectious diseases, chemicals, and radiation exposure. Personal cancer risk is enhanced due to tobacco usage, diet, and physical activity. Research shows that about one-third of all cancer deaths are related to dietary factors and lack of physical activity in adulthood.

Some cancers are related to viral infections and can be prevented by vaccines and behavior changes. More than 1 million skin cancers expected to be diagnosed in 2003 could have been prevented by protection from the sun's rays.

Understanding Cancer

One needs to understand cancer .The first thing one needs to know is that most cancers are preventable if people lead a more healthy life style and avoid numerous habits that might create conditions for cancer like cigarette and tobacco. According to the American Cancer Institute's recent statistics , one out of two men and one out of three women in the United States will develop some type of cancer during their lifetime. As the American Cancer Society, in its 1997studies suggested that 'Avoiding cigarette smoke and tobacco in any form is the most important action anyone can take to avoid cancer, especially lung and pancreatic cancers, which are most often incurable. Cigarette smoke is estimated to be the primary cause in the development of at least 30% of all cancers.

A healthy diet that includes low levels of animal fat and high levels of fresh fruits, vegetables and fiber from grains will also markedly reduce the risk of cancer. Avoiding as much as possible ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunshine is essential to prevent skin cancer later in life. Finally, knowing what chemicals in the environment are cancer-causing can help you avoid dangerous substances. Overall, if everything known about cancer prevention were practiced by everyone, up to two-thirds of all cancers could be prevented.'

The American Cancer Society has recommended test for the early detection of cancers of the breast, colon, prostrate and cervix. It is important to undertake screening tests as indicated by the person's age and risk group. One of the positive findings and observations in cancer treatment is that half of all cancer patients can be cured if their cancer is detected in the early stages before the cancer cells have spread. A cured person's life expectancy is the same as that of a person without cancer. A person needs to observe the early warning signs in the changes in the body functions.

Cancer Causes

Since the earliest ages man has been observing conditions similar to cancer and trying to ascertain its causes. It also proves that it is not a modern health problem. There have been numerous theories that have evolved over the ages on the causes of cancer.
The properly documented theory of modern day carcinogens is the most important today. The Rous sarcoma virus is a cancer found in chickens and named after Nobel Prize winner, Peyton Rous of Rockefeller Institute, New York who discovered it in 1911. It was also observed that coal tar also causes cancer in laboratory animals. Tobacco happens to be one of the most destructive sources of chemical carcinogens known to mankind.
Today many types of hydrocarbons are termed as carcinogenic in nature. These substances or chemicals are coal tars, benzene, aniline, asbestos, arsenic, and others. Radiation like solar radiation and nuclear sources also causes cancer .For ensuring public safety the government has specified various occupational standards for carcinogenic substances like benzene, asbestos, hydrocarbons, arsenic, and radiation etc.

Other than these carcinogenic substances there are a number of viruses that cause cancer:

The hepatitis virus causes liver cancer
The herpes virus, the Epstein-Barr virus, causes mononucleosis, possibly linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and nasopharyngeal cancer.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is increasingly associated with several types of cancer
Human Papilloma viruses (HPV) have been linked to cancers of the male and female genital areas.
Scientists had already recognized the association of the substances and viruses with cancer before understanding the cancer causing mechanisms.

What is Cancer?

The Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) known as the 'Father of Medicine' used the term carcinos and carcinoma to describe a condition similar to cancer or tumors. Carcinoma is the most commonly found type of cancer. In Greek carcinoma means crab like shape that is seen in the tentacle like projections in cancer. Cancer is the condition of particular development of body cells when it grows in an abnormal manner and multiplies out of control. Normal cells in our body follow a regulated pattern to grow, divide and then die but this is not the case with cancer cells which grow out of control. Cancerous cells also outlive the normal cells and keep multiplying into more abnormal cells that have no particular body function.

It has been observed that cancer cells travel from one part of the body to another in a process called metastasis. They enter the blood stream or the lymphatic system and start replacing the normal cells and continue to grow. When breast cancer cells spread to another organ or body part the cancer is still called breast cancer and not by its new destination. Damage in its DNA leads cancer cells to develop abnormally. In inherited cancer the damaged DNA and cancer is passed on from one generation to another. The person's environment like smoking can also damage his DNA leading him to develop cancer.

Cancer in the body is generally observed as a solid tumor or growth, though in leukemia cancer cells are found in the blood or blood forming organs and start growing while circulating through other tissues and organs. Not all cancer is malignant, some are benign and are not life threatening. Different cancers develop at different rates and behave differently to treatment.

Millions of Americans have or had cancer. The risk of a person to get cancer can be reduced with a healthier lifestyle, better diet and stopping smoking. Early detection can also assist in starting treatment and increase the person's chances of living cancer .The statistics show that cancer is one of the leading causes of death with one out of two men and one out of three women in the US developing cancer.

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